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THE 

Boston  Public  Library 
QUARTERLY 


Boston  Public  Library 

QUARTERLY 


Volume  IV 
1 95^ 


Published  by  the  Trustees 
Boston,  Massachusetts 


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Table  of  Contents 


Page 

Articles 

Alcott's  Search  for  the  Child  88 

Antarctica,  The  First  Recognition  of  3 

Augustine,  St.,  The  Life  of,  in  Pictures  20 

Benson,  Frank  W.,  Painter  and  Etcher  102 

Bernard,  Governor,  for  an  American  Nobility  125 

Child,  Lydia  Maria,  and  Anti-Slavery  34 

Civil  War  Sketches  27 

Delatre,  Eugene  149 

Fore-Edge  Paintings,  The  Wiggin  Collection  of  50 

French  Prints,  Contemporary  210 

A Gift  of  Rare  Books  67 

A Hundred  Years  Ago  115 

The  Impostures  of  the  Devil  185 

The  Keepsake  in  Nineteenth-Century  Art  139 

“Not  Men,  But  Books”  167 

Prophecies  of  the  Popes  200 

Notes  on  Rare  Books  and  Manuscripts 

Carnival  Play,  An  Early  German  108 

Fuller,  Margaret,  A Satire  on  Longfellow  224 

Hawthorne’s  “The  Ambitious  Guest,”  The  Sources  of  221 
Longfellow,  Letters  to  Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps  157 

Manuscripts,  An  Important  Gift  of  57 

O’Meara,  Stephen,  Collection  160 

Richardson  Discusses  his  Clarissa  and  Grand  iso  n 217 

The  Spirit  of  Young  America  iio 

Valentine  Writers’  Manuals  162 

Wynkyn  de  Worde’s  Passyon  of  1521  61 


Illustrations 


Antarctica,  Captain  Burdick’s  Logbook  Entry  about  13 

Benson,  Frank  W.,  “The  Marsh  Gunner,”  an  Etching  103 
Delatre,  Eugene  Self-Portrait  of  151 

Dickens,  Charles,  Dombey  and  Son , Title  Page  of  the 

Original  Edition  in  Parts  79 

Fore-Edge  Paintings  on  William  Cowper’s  Poems  53 

Gems  of  Beauty,  “The  Parting”  from  143 

Homer,  Winslow,  one  of  his  Campaign  Sketches  29 

Lyrical  Ballads,  Title-Page  of  the  First  London  Edition  71 
‘Prophecies  of  the  Popes,”  Boniface  VIII  205 

Ticknor,  George,  at  Thirty-Seven  173 

Utrillo:  “Moulin  de  la  Galette”  213 


THE 


Boston  Public  Library 
QUARTERLY 


Volume  4,  Number  1 


Contents 


Page 

The  First  Recognition  of  Antarctica  3 

By  Edouard  A.  Stackpole 

The  Life  of  St.  Augustine  in  Pictures  20 

By  Ellen  M.  Oldham 

Civil  War  Sketches  27 

By  Alison  Bishop 

Lydia  Maria  Child  and  Anti-Slavery  34 

By  Ethel  K.  Ware 

The  Wiggin  Collection  of  Fore-Edge  Paintings  50 

By  Muriel  C.  Figenbaum 

Notes  on  Rare  Books  and  Manuscripts 

An  Important  Gift  of  Manuscripts  57 

By  Zoltdn  Harassti 

Wynkyn  de  Worde's  Passyon  of  1521  61 

By  Margaret  Munsterberg 

Illustrations 


** 

* 


EDITOR:  ZOLTAN  HARASZTI 

The  Boston  Public  Library  Quarterly  is  published,  for  January,  April,  July, 
and  October  by  the  Trustees  of  the  Public  Library  of  the  City  of  Boston 
in  Copley  Square,  Boston  17.  Entered  as  second-class  matter  at  Boston, 
Massachusetts.  Printed  at  the  Boston  Public  Library  in  December  1951 

Single  Copies,  50  cents 
Annual  Subscription,  $ 2.00 


THE 

Boston  Public  Library 
QUARTERLY 

JANUARY  1952 

The  First  Recognition  of  Antarctica 

By  EDOUARD  A.  STACKPOI.E 

FOR  centuries  the  continent  of  Antarctica  was  the  sub- 
ject of  mystery.  Captain  James  Cook,  of  the  British  Navy, 
on  his  remarkable  voyages  of  1772-75,  circumnavigated 
the  great  southern  continent  without  sighting  it,  although  he 
had  reason  to  believe  in  its  existence.  “It  is  true,  however,”  he 
wrote  as  of  February  6,  1775,  “that  the  greatest  part  of  this 
southern  continent  (supposing  there  is  one)  must  lie  within 
the  polar  circle,  where  the  sea  is  so  pestered  with  ice  that  the 
land  is  thereby  inaccessible.  The  risque  one  runs  in  exploring 
a coast,  in  these  unknown  and  icy  seas,  is  so  very  great,  that 
I can  be  bold  enough  to  say  that  no  man  will  ever  venture 
farther  than  I have  done;  and  that  the  lands  which  may  lie  to 
the  South  will  never  be  explored.”1 

The  discovery  of  the  Antarctic  Continent  has  been  credited 
to  Admiral  Charles  Wilkes  of  the  United  States  Exploring  Ex- 
pedition, and  to  Admiral  Dumont  D’Urville  of  the  French  Navy, 
both  of  whom  approached  the  ice  barrier  of  the  new  continent 
from  different  positions  in  January,  1840.2  However,  a few 
years  ago  American  historians  found  that  the  real  discovery 
probably  occurred  two  decades  earlier,  when  American  sealers 
at  the  South  Shetlands  came  upon  a mountainous,  snow-capped 
land  to  the  south. 

In  1940,  Colonel  Lawrence  Martin,  the  Chief  of  the  Division 


3 


4 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 


of  Maps  in  the  Library  of  Congress,  presented  documentary 
evidence  to  prove  that  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer,  an 
American  sealing  master  of  Stonington,  Connecticut,  had 
sighted  Antarctica  where  its  peninsula  juts  out  toward  the 
South  Shetland  Islands,  five  hundred  miles  south  of  Cape 
Horn.3  The  discovery  was  claimed  to  be  as  of  November  1820, 
when  Captain  Palmer  commanded  the  sloop  Hero,  one  of  the 
Stonington  fleet  of  sealers.  The  section  of  the  Antarctic  penin- 
sula then  sighted  has  been  called  by  a number  of  geographers 
“Palmer’s  Land,”  while  the  peninsula  is  now  known  as  the 
Palmer  Peninsula.  The  log  book  of  the  Hero  is  in  the  Library 
of  Congress. 

On  the  basis  of  the  log  of  the  Nantucket  schooner  Huntress 
— found  by  the  present  writer  beneath  the  pasted  clippings  of 
an  old  scrapbook  — a new  claim  is  advanced  here;  namely  that 
Christopher  Burdick,  Captain  of  the  Huntress , was  the  first 
man  to  recognize  the  continent  of  Antarctica. 

T HE  adventures  of  the  American  sealers  are  of  extraordin- 
ary interest.  Always  seeking  new  rookeries,  in  a continual  hunt 
for  fur  seals  and  sea  elephants,  these  “nomads  of  the  sea” 
sailed  into  unknown  waters  and  made  several  important  con- 
tributions to  the  geographical  history  of  the  world.  With- the 
growth  of  the  trade  with  China  of  sealskins  for  silks  and  tea, 
the  sealers  boldly  sailed  their  little  craft  from  the  Falklands  in- 
to the  uncharted  nooks  and  crannies  of  Patagonia,  rediscovered 
the  Crozets,  and  visited  Desolation  Island,  voyaged  from  the 
South  American  coast  along  the  higher  latitudes  to  New  Zea- 
land and  Tasmania,  and  at  last  were  among  the  first  mariners 
to  reach  the  newly-discovered  South  Shetlands  — five  hundred 
miles  south  of  Cape  Horn  — in  1819. 

The  South  Shetland  Islands  were  accidentally  discovered 
by  Captain  William  Smith,  an  Englishman  who  was  making 
regular  commercial  voyages  from  Buenos  Aires  around  Cape 
Horn  to  Valparaiso.  In  the  brig  Williams  Captain  Smith,  whose 
course  had  been  laid  far  south  of  Cape  Horn  in  an  attempt  to 
circumvent  contrary  gales,  on  February  19,  1819,  sighted  the 
islands  and  on  the  next  day  confirmed  his  discovery,  although 


THE  FIRST  RECOGNITION  OF  ANTARCTICA  5 

he  did  not  land.  The  South  Shetlands  are  a chain  of  volcanic 
origin,  lying  about  five  hundred  miles  south  of  Cape  Horn,  be- 
tween 61 0 and  63°  South  and  530  to  63°  West.  A strait  fifty 
miles  wide,  filled  with  ice  and  made  doubly  treacherous  by  fog, 
separates  them  from  the  Palmer  Peninsula.4  Later,  Lieutenant 
Edward  Bransfield,  of  the  British  naval  squadron  in  the  Paci- 
fic, was  commissioned  to  accompany  Smith  on  another  voyage 
to  the  South  Shetlands  from  December  1819  to  March  1820. 
An  account  of  this  exploration  was  composed  by  Dr.  Adam 
Young,  surgeon  of  the  expedition,  and  printed  in  the  Edinburgh 
Philosophical  Journal  of  April  1821. 

The  report  that  there  were  seals  in  these  islands  immediately 
aroused  the  interest  of  both  American  and  British  sealers.  Wil- 
liam Herbert  Hobbs,  in  his  exhaustive  study,  “The  Discoveries 
of  Antarctica  within  the  American  Sector, states  that  Smith 
probably  had  secretly  told  British  sealers  at  Buenos  Aires  of 
the  whereabouts  of  the  South  Shetlands,  and  that  the  British 
Espirito  Santo  sailed  from  that  port  in  October  i8i9.s  The 
American  brig  Hersilia , Captain  James  P.  Sheffield,  which  had 
sailed  from  Stonington,  Connecticut,  late  in  July  1819,  is  sup- 
posed to  have  spoken  the  Espirito  Santo  at  the  Falklands  and 
arrived  at  the  South  Shetlands  about  the  same  time  as  the 
British  craft  — in  November  1819.  She  returned  to  Stonington 
in  July  1820.  Next,  a fleet  of  five  vessels  left  Stonington  harbor 
in  the  summer  of  1820,  and  several  other  ports  sent  out  craft 
as  well.  Just  how  many  British  ships  there  were  is  not  known, 
but  Captain  Burdick  in  his  journal  speaks  of  the  British  being 
able  to  muster  eighty  men  in  case  there  was  a pitched  battle 
between  the  rival  sealers. 

The  mountainous  South  Shetlands,  covered  with  snow  most 
of  the  year,  where  moss,  lichen,  and  some  straggling  grass  are 
the  only  growing  things,  were  found  to  be  a great  haunt  for  sea 
elephants  and  fowl  as  well  as  seals.  The  desolate  shores  did 
contain  several  harbors  for  anchorage  purposes,  but  they  were 
dangerous  due  to  sudden  gales,  drifting  ice,  and  the  great  fogs 
which  swept  in  from  the  unknown  seas  to  the  south.  The  curi- 
ous phenomena  of  hot  water  springs  at  two  harbors  made  these 
fog  banks  especially  thick,  adding  greatly  to  the  eerie  appear- 
ance of  the  rocky  shores  and  beaches. 


6 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 


Captain  Christopher  burdicic  sailed  the  fifty- 

foot  schooner  Huntress  out  of  Nantucket  on  August  4,  1820. 
Two  weeks  later  he  sighted  Fayal  in  the  Azores,  and  at  five 
o’clock  the  next  morning  hove  to  off  Pico.  “Lowered  away  the 
boat  and  sint  it  on  shore  for  vegtables.  Tacking  off  and  on  for 
boats,”  he  recorded.  Continuing  his  voyage,  he  made  the  Cape 
Verdes  on  August  28,  where  he  took  a cargo  of  salt  on  board 
at  the  island  of  Boa  Vista.  His  next  passage  was  across  the 
South  Atlantic  to  the  Falkland  Islands;  on  the  way  (October 
26)  he  spoke  to  the  ship  President,  Captain  Cottle,  seventy- 
three  days  out  from  Nantucket,  and  “lowered  away  the  boat 
and  went  on  board.” 

On  October  31,  1820,  the  Huntress  arrived  at  the  Falklands. 
Captain  Burdick  carefully  noted  his  approach  to  the  “Western 
Falkland  Island,”  where,  after  sailing  alongshore,  he  discovered 
an  opening  in  the  land  which  appeared  to  form  a bay,  with 
several  small  islands  ahead.  His  careful  seamanship  is  recorded 
as  follows : 


Wednesday,  the  1 November  [1820] 

Begins  with  moderate  Brezes  and  pleasant  at  y2  past  12  Being 
abrest  of  the  opening  Concluded  to  run  in  close  in  perceived  plenty 
of  kelp  in  the  passage,  sent  the  boat  to  examine  and  tacked  off. 
The  boat  returnd  and  reported  2 fathoms  in  pass  & no  roks  & a Large 
Sound  inside,  whre  and  run  in  sent  the  Boat  ahead  & crosd  the 
sound  to  the  southward  which  was  six  miles  wide  & 10  fathoms 
water  went  in  to  a snug  harbor  at  5 P.M.  anchored  in  2 fathoms.  So 
ends. 

Wednesday,  the  1 [continued] 

. . . took  one  man  with  me  and  went  on  shore  and  went  onto  a hill 
about  V/2  miles  high.  From  it  Could  Count  about  fifty  islands 
which  formd  the  sound,  the  principal  part.  The  smaller  islands  lay 
on  the  South  of  the  sound,  the  Land  I was  to  anchor  under  which  I 
supposed  to  be  the  main  island,  proved  to  be  one  of  those  islands, 
it  being  very  hazy  I could  not  determine  whether  ther  was  any 
islands  to  the  Southward  and  Westward  of  me.  Got  on  board  at  3 
P.M.  So  Ends. 

The  Land  to  the  North  hindered  getting  the  sun.  Supposd  Lat. 
5i°  20. 

Thursday,  the  2 November 

. . . All  hands  employed  in  Breaking  out  the  hold  and  shifting 


THE  FIRST  RECOGNITION  OF  ANTARCTICA 


7 


the  salt  room  to  get  at  the  mainmast.  Strong  gales  . . . At  H the 
gale  increasing  the  schr.  hooked  her  anchor.  Let  go  the  small  an- 
chor, veered  out,  25  & 50  on  the  other  which  brought  the  hawser 
to  with  60  fathoms.  At  12  it  blew  tremendous  the  schr.  heeling  well 
over  . . . Let  go  the  sheat  anchor  and  veared  out  on  him,  and  then 
I turned  in. 

All  this  time  we  were  lying  under  the  Lee  of  the  Land  — Y\ 
mile  off  in  less  than  2 fathoms  water  and  good  holding  ground  and 
smooth,  all  except  the  wind  had  the  water  right  up.  At  6 P.M.  mod- 
erate, took  in  Sheat  anchor. 


Friday  the  3 November 

. . . Got  the  fouryard  and  main  Boom  up  for  sheers  hoisted  our 
mainmast  out  of  the  step,  Cut  five  feet  off  the  heal  & stepped  it 
anew  which  brought  the  place  sprung  in  the  wake  of  the  hardness. 
At  3 P.M.  took  a man  with  me  on  shore  at  6 returned  with  14 
geese.  Saw  several  seal  around  the  shore  in  the  water. 

While  in  the  Falklands,  Captain  Burdick  sighted  a small 
schooner  off  the  mouth  of  the  harbor.  He  hoisted  his  colors 
and,  as  the  schooner  ran  into  the  passage,  hailed  her.  “Asking 
her  where  from,  she  answered  from  West  Point.  I,  thinking  she 
was  a-going  to  anchor,  asked  no  more  questions.  She  tacked 
soon  after  and  went  out  without  anything  more  passing  between 
us  and  was  soon  out  of  sight  behind  the  land  . . . She  sot  no 
collours.”  Such  were  the  mysterious  visits  of  rival  sealers. 

That  the  Nantucket  sealing  master,  then  twenty-seven  years 
old,  had  more  than  ordinary  curiosity  about  the  geography  of 
his  landfalls  is  evident  from  his  entry  at  the  Falklands: 

Sunday  the  5 

Begins  with  Light  [breezes]  NW  and  pleasant.  At  8 A.M.  started 
with  a Boat’s  Crew  & rowed  around  the  island  to  the  southward 
and  Eastward  which  I was  to  anchor  under  until  I came  out  on  the 
west  side  it  blowing  very  fresh  . . . and  very  ruff.  I landed  on  a 
Large  Island  to  the  Southward  of  me  and  went  onto  a mountain 
to  see  what  I could  but  the  Clouds  on  the  mountain  hindered  me 
from  seeing.  Returned  to  the  vessel  at  6 P.M.  without  being  much 
wizer.  So  Ends  this  Day. 

On  November  22,  1820,  he  left  the  Falklands,  heading  for 
the  South  Shetlands,  this  time  in  company  with  the  New  Haven 
ship  Huron , Captain  Davis,  and  her  shallop,  or  tender.  On  No- 
vember 25  they  sighted  Staten  Island,  and  Captain  Burdick 


8 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

took  an  observation  so  as  to  figure  his  variations.  On  Novem- 
ber 30,  he  wrote : 

Begins  with  moderate  breezes  and  thick  cloudy  weather  attended 
with  snow  at  6 P.M.  thick  fogg  hove  two  being  in  coullered  water. 
Latter  part  broken  cloudy  & a very  thick  haze  to  SSE.  At  10  A.M. 
the  water  being  very  much  discoullered  sounded  150  fathoms  — 
no  bottom.  Lat  61 0 40. 

The  next  day,  December  1,  1820,  at  4 p.m.  the  murky  weather 
lifted  a little  and  Captain  Burdick  made  sail.  At  meridian  he 
made  his  latitude  out  as  being  in  62°  7'  South,  and  at  that  time 
sighted  land  to  the  southeast.  In  company  with  the  Huron  and 
her  shallop  he  steered  southward.  On  December  2 he  lay  to 
under  the  land,  looking  for  a harbor.  The  fog  came  in  so  thickly 
that  the  larger  craft  sailed  off  the  shore,  leaving  the  shallop  to 
search  for  a harbor.  A northwest  gale  drove  them  to  the  east- 
ward, but  they  were  back  in  the  vicinity  of  the  land  the  next 
day  searching  for  the  shallop,  which  they  found  the  following 
noon.  The  small  craft  had  found  a harbor.  On  December  8, 
Captain  Burdick  entered  in  his  log: 

...  At  4 P.M.  hauled  our  wind  to  Beat  up  the  harbor  in  Co  with 
ship  Huron  of  New  Haven  and  her  shallop.  Middle  and  Latter 
part  brisk  winds.  Stood  in  to  Yanky  Sound  and  went  into  harbor 
came  two  at  6 A.M.  in  16  fathoms.  Landlocked  found  five  Stoning- 
ton  vessels  here.  So  ends  sea  account. 

The  five  Stonington  craft  were  the  fleet  commanded  by  Cap- 
tain Benjamin  Pendleton,  consisting  of  the  brig  Frederick , Cap- 
tain Pendleton;  the  brig  Hersilia , Captain  Sheffield;  schooner 
Hero,  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer;  schooner  Freegift, 
Captain  Thomas  Dundas  ; and  schooner  Express , Captain  Eph- 
raim Williams.  This  was  only  a portion  of  the  sealing  craft  at 
the  South  Shetlands  at  this  time,  as  there  were  an  equal  num- 
ber of  ships  from  other  American  ports  and  probably  as  many 
more  British  sealers.  The  harbor  where  the  fleet  lay,  Yankee 
Harbor,  was  on  the  southeast  coast  of  Greenwich  Island.  The 
business  of  sealing  combined  the  work  of  shore-crews  and  boat- 
crews.  When  a herd  was  located  on  the  rocky  shore,  a shore- 
crew  was  landed  to  surround  and  kill  them.  Then  began  the 
skinning  operations,  after  which  the  sealskins  were  taken  off 


THE  FIRST  RECOGNITION  OF  ANTARCTICA 


9 


by  the  small  boats.  It  is  apparent  from  accounts  left  by  the 
sealers,  such  as  Captain  Burdick’s  journal,  that  ship  masters 
took  turns  in  leading  shore-crews  and  boat-crews. 

T HE  Nantucket  and  New  Haven  crews  got  to  work  quick- 
ly. Captain  Burdick  reports  as  of  Saturday,  December  9,  1820: 

Begins  with  Brisk  wind  from  NW.  sent  Mr.  Coleman  [first 
mate  of  the  Huntress]  and  eight  men  on  board  the  shallop  . . . the 
ship  sent  twenty-two  and  2 boats.  At  10  A.M.  the  shallop  went 
out  to  find  a place  to  land  the  men  for  sealing.  Latter  part  brisk 
gales  and  rainy.  So  Ends. 

While  Captain  Burdick  remained  on  board  the  Huntress , clear- 
ing out  his  hold  and  mending  his  sails,  the  shallop  of  the  Huron 
hunted  seals  along  the  shores  of  Greenwich  and  Friesland 
Islands.  On  Wednesday,  December  13,  Captain  Burdick  noted: 

Begins  with  moderate  Breezes  at  NE  and  Pleasant.  At  10  A.M. 
Capt.  Davis  and  myself  with  seven  men  went  up  Yanky  sound  to 
the  westward  in  a boat  to  see  if  we  could  See  any  place  for  seals. 
About  12  miles  up  the  Sound  which  brought  us  out  on  the  west 
side  found  a Scotch  brigg  to  anchor.  She  had  her  men  on  shore  on 
a Beech  but  there  was  no  seal  up.  Found  a passage  out  to  the  west- 
ward throug  this  Sound,  followed  it  through  with  our  boat  it  being 
full  of  rocks,  found  seals  at  6 P.M.  returned  to  our  vessels  with  fif- 
teen seals.  The  shallop  not  returned.  So  Ends. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  Stonington  sealer  Clothier  was 
wrecked  on  the  northwest  shore  of  Friesland  Island.  The  log 
of  the Huntress  records  this  as  of  Thursday,  December  14,  1820: 

Begins  with  moderate  breezes  and  pleasant.  A strange  Boat  came 
in  which  proved  a Boat  from  Capt.  Clark’s  fleet  from  Stonington 
and  reported  the  loss  of  Captain  Clark’s  ship  the  Clothier  which  run 
on  a Rock  in  attempting  to  make  a harbor  about  15  miles  to  the 
westward  of  where  we  lay  the  rest  of  his  fleet  had  harbored  closely 
by  the  ship  and  was  saving  what  they  could.  Latter  part  strong 
gale.  So  Ends. 

Four  days  later,  after  weathering  a northeast  gale  accompanied 
by  snow,  Captain  Burdick  made  a cruise  “around  the  island 
called  Frezeland,”  to  the  south-southwest.  On  this  occasion  the 
Nantucket  captain  met  Captain  Johnson,  of  the  schooner  Jane 


10 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 


Maria  of  New  York,  one  of  the  most  adventurous  of  the  sealing 
skippers  and  a man  who  was  to  lose  his  life  several  years  later 
searching  for  the  land  which  he  expected  to  find  southwest  of 
the  South  Shetlands.  Captain  Burdick  wrote  of  the  meeting: 

. . . Employed  towing  to  windward  to  get  around  the  Island.  At 
9 P.M.  fell  in  with  Capt.  Johnson’s  fleet  of  New  York  from  Raged 
Island  looking  for  Yanky  harbor  this  fleet  consists  of  one  Brigg 
two  Schooners  and  shallop. 

Captain  Burdick  found  several  large  herds  of  seals  at  van- 
tage points  along  the  south  coast  of  Friesland  Island.  He  ob- 
tained 980  skins  and  also  discovered  that  the  Stonington  craft 
had  landed  fifty  men  along  a seven-mile  stretch  of  shore.  He 
returned  to  Yankee  Plarbor  on  December  22,  1820,  and  again 
met  Captain  Johnson  and  his  fleet  there.  The  latter  had  a total 
of  1600  skins,  having  arrived  at  the  South  Shetlands  two 
months  before  the  Huntress.  On  Christmas  Day,  Captain  Bur- 
dick wrote  the  following  in  his  log: 

Begins  with  strong  Gales  at  NE  with  Snow  and  hail.  Me  and 
the  Boy  busily  engaged  in  scraping  the  ice  from  the  cables  & sides 
of  the  vessel.  The  NE  side  of  our  harbor  is  formed  By  And  Iceburg 
from  three  to  five  hundred  feet  high  from  the  surface  of  the  water 
which  Break  off  in  flakes  of  4 or  5 hundred  tons  with  a report  as 
Loud  as  a Cannon.  These  pieces  of  ice  fall  into  the  water  and  the 
wind  drives  them  afoul  of  us  which  is  very  chafing.  Latter  part 
moderate.  Employed  in  mending  scrivits  on  the  cables.  So  ends 
this  Day. 

In  such  a dangerous  anchorage  the  Huntress  lay  with  the  seal- 
ing fleet,  all  with  their  anchors  down,  when  a gale  broke.  On 
one  occasion  Captain  Burdick  records:  “A  large  boat  as  big  as 
two  whaleboats  which  was  hauled  up  on  shore  was  Blown 
about  30  or  40  rods  and  stove  to  pieces.”  On  January  9,  1821, 
Captain  Davis  of  the  Huron , who  had  “cruised  as  far  to  the 
northeast  as  the  land  extended  but  found  no  seal  to  speak  of,” 
returned  with  the  shallop.  The  log  of  the  Huntress  reads  under 
this  date : 

Captain  Davis  . . . fell  in  with  an  English  ship  and  brigg  that 
were  castaway,  took  part  of  their  crews  and  put  them  on  board  an 
English  vessel  lying  at  Ragged  Island.  Returned  to  where  the  men 
were  stationed  and  brought  in  2470  Skins.  Took  696  on  board  being 
my  part  ...  So  Ends  this  Day. 


THE  FIRST  RECOGNITION  OF  ANTARCTICA  u 

Sealing  operations  continued  to  be  successful.  The  schooner 
returned  with  627  skins  on  January  13,  1821.  Captain  Burdick 
took  her  along  the  coast  of  Friesland  again  on  a cruise  and  ob- 
tained 981  more  skins,  but  had  a difficult  time  of  it  when  a 
northeast  snowstorm  sprang  up,  followed  by  a “tremendous 
gale,”  forcing  him  to  sail  off  shore,  standing  to  the  “southward 
and  east  on  a wind  . . . with  a tremendous  sea  and  perishing 
cold  weather.”  With  the  gale  increasing,  on  January  20,  at  4 
a.m.,  he  sighted  President  Island,  the  next  island  southeast  of 
Friesland,  about  three  miles  ahead.  He  recorded: 

The  gale  still  increasing,  took  in  the  mainsail,  whore  around  and 
ran  between  President  Island  and  Frezeland,  among  a parcel  of 
ledges  and  hauled  round  between  Ragged  Island  and  Frezeland  and 
anchored  in  7 fathoms  with  both  anchors. 

The  vagaries  of  South  Shetland  weather  were  characteristic 
of  the  Antarctic  Sea.  Upon  his  return  to  Yankee  Harbor  two 
days  later,  Captain  Burdick  remarked  that,  the  wind  having 
fallen  away  to  a calm,  he  had  to  lower  the  boat  to  tow  the 
shallop  into  the  anchorage. 

Some  of  the  most  interesting  entries  in  the  log  now  appear : 

Tuesday  the  25  [January  1821] 

...  A Boat  came  in  belonging  to  Captain  Barnard  of  Nantucket 
in  Brig  Charity  having  been  robbed  of  eighty  skins  by  the  English 
at  Sheriffs  Cape  and  drove  off  the  beach.  4 P.M.  our  Boat  come  in 
from  a cruise  with  52  skins  having  likewise  been  drove  from  the 
beach  at  Sheriffs  Cove  by  the  English  where  he  said  there  was 
plenty  of  seal.  The  muskets  of  all  the  vessels  in  the  harbor  being 
nine  in  number  and  all  Americans  being  notified  of  the  Same  all 
repaired  on  board  ship  Huron,  Capt.  Davis,  to  Consult  about  what 
to  be  done  Where  we  all  agreed  as  one  to  Muster  all  our  men  from 
our  Several  Camps  and  as  one  body  to  go  on  to  said  beach  at  Sheriffs 
Cape  and  take  seal  by  Fair  means  if  we  could  but  at  all  Events  to 
take  them.  So  Ends. 

Friday,  the  26 

...  At  6 A.M.  Capt.  Bruno  of  the  schooner  Henry  started  in  a 
Boat  with  the  First  officer  of  the  schr.  Expres  with  a circular  Let- 
ter signed  by  all  the  masters  to  their  Respective  officers  at  their 
Camps  to  muster  all  their  men  save  a man  at  Each  Camp  and  with 
their  Boat  to  Repair  amediately  under  the  guidance  of  Capt.  Bruno 
to  a Small  Bay  not  far  from  Sheriffs  Cape  where  Capt.  Davis  and 


12 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

Capt.  Barnard  would  meet  them  in  the  shallop  with  5 boats  and 
33  men  . . . the  residue  of  the  men  from  the  harbor  at  8 P.M. 

Capt.  Davis  and  Capt.  Barnard  started  in  the  shallop  they  met 
at  the  place  appointed  120  men,  they  would  have  to  land  and 
by  the  best  information  we  can  get  the  English  have  but  about 
80  men  there.  So  Ends. 

The  expected  battle  between  the  rival  sealers  could  not  have 
taken  place,  as  Captain  Burdick  makes  no  further  mention  of 
the  subject.  It  is  probable  that  the  British  sealers,  seeing  the 
large  group  of  Americans  determined  on  using  the  rookeries, 
with  laudable  discretion  quietly  withdrew. 

^3  N the  next  day,  the  Nantucket  skipper  made  an  important 
entry  in  his  log.  He  made  no  further  reference  to  the  impend- 
ing  fight  between  British  and  American  sealers;  in  fact,  he 
completely  ignored  the  exciting  record  of  the  day  before.  What 
he  did  write  is  significant  of  where  his  true  interests  lay  — in 
the  possibility  of  discovering  new  rookeries  on  land  heretofore 
not  visited  by  other  sealers.  He  records  as  follows: 

Saturday,  the  27 

. . . Capt.  Johnson  came  in  in  shallop  from  a cruise  of  22  days  — 
said  he  had  been  to  the  Lat  66°  S and  the  Long,  of  70°  West  and 
still  found  what  he  first  took  to  be  Land  but  appeared  to  be  noth- 
ing but  sollid  islands  of  Ice  and  Snow.  Whether  he  had  found  any 
seal  he  did  not  inform  nor  otherwise  than  then  to  say  ther  was 
none  so  far  South  as  he  had  ben. 

This  was  a very  definite  report  and  Captain  Burdick  prompt- 
ly took  it  into  account.  The  next  day  he  observed  that  the 
“Stonington  shallops”  had  returned  after  a cruise  of  fourteen 
days  to  the  northward  and  eastward  and  had  seen  no  seals. 
Thus,  two  possible  locations  were  eliminated.  When  Captain 
Davis  returned  a few  days  later  from  a cruise  to  the  westward 
and  brought  back  1720  skins,  it  took  care  of  the  shore  in  that 
direction.  There  was  only  one  compass  direction  left  towards 
which  Captain  Burdick  might  sail  — south  by  west,  into  the 
unknown  seas.  This  direction  he  followed  two  days  later. 

In  the  interim  he  went  with  several  other  ship  masters  to 
attend  the  auction  of  articles  from  the  wreck  of  the  Clothier  at 


13 


Captain  Burdick's  Logbook  Entry  about  Antarctica 


THE  FIRST  RECOGNITION  OF  ANTARCTICA 


15 


the  place  called  “Clothier  Harbor.”  On  February  1,  1821,  he 
met  two  well-known  sealers  here  — Captain  Winship  of  Bos- 
ton, who  had  come  down  on  the  O'Cain  three  months  before, 
and  “Capt.  Smith,  the  man  that  Discovered  this  Land  first.  He 
had  two  vessels  and  60  men  and  had  got  45,000  skins.”  Their 
talk  was  not  recorded,  but  it  may  be  assumed  that  Captain 
Burdick  asked  many  questions  of  Captain  Smith. 

On  February  12,  1821,  Captain  Burdick  sailed  “southward 
and  westward.”  “Light  Brezes  and  Calm,  trying  to  get  to  the 
Southward,”  he  entered  the  first  day.  Cruising  along  the 
southern  coast  of  Friesland  Island,  he  took  his  first  officer,  Mr. 
Coleman,  off  the  bleak  shore.  The  next  day,  sailing  west  along- 
shore, they  found  a rookery  and  collected  446  skins  between 
them.  Later  that  day  he  “stood  to  the  southward.”  On  the  15th 
of  the  month  he  continued  south-southwest.  His  log  book  re- 
cords the  sighting  of  Antarctica : 

Begins  with  Light  airs  and  variable  with  Calms  pleasant  wether 
at  meridien  Lat  by  obs.  63  . . 17  S President  Island  Bearing  North  3 
Leagues  mount  Pisco  SW  b W dist  7 Leagues  the  Peak  of  Freze- 
land  NE  E 11  Leagues  Deception  Island  NE  by  N 8 Leagues 
and  a small  Low  Island  SSW  6 Leagues  to  which  I am  bound  and 
Land  from  South  to  ESE  which  I suppose  to  be  a Continent.  Later 
part  fresh  breze  at  North.  At  6 P.  M.came  to  anchor  under  Low 
island  among  a parcel  of  rocks  Sent  the  Boat  on  shore  She  returned 
with  22  Seal  So  ends  thes  24  hours. 

The  mere  fact  that  Captain  Burdick  laconically  announces 
sighting  “land  from  South  to  ESE  which  I suppose  to  be  a 
Continent”  reveals  that  he  had  sailed  the  Huntress  to  a position 
off  Hoseason  Island  where  it  was  easily  possible  for  him  to 
sight  the  black,  rocky,  and  precipitous  shore  of  the  Antarctic 
Continent  with  its  great,  snowy  mountain-plateau  stretching 
for  miles  away. 

The  atmospheric  conditions  favored  long-range  observation 
and  tended  to  shorten  distances.  Burdick  mentions  sighting 
Friesland  Island  more  than  thirty  miles  away  to  the  northeast, 
but  it  is  probable  that  the  peak  of  Friesland  was  much  further 
off,  thus  placing  the  continent  of  Antarctica  — twenty  miles 
away  — clearly  in  view.  Furthermore,  he  continued  his  cruise 
south  for  several  hours,  anchoring  at  6 p.m.  at  an  island,  some 


1 6 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 


twenty  miles  from  the  Continental  shore  across  Der  Gerlache 
Strait.  He  remained  in  the  vicinity  two  days,  going  ashore  on 
both  sides  of  the  island  and  getting  seal  skins.  It  was  not  until 
February  19  that  he  returned  to  Yankee  Harbor. 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  fair  to  assume  that  the  Nan- 
tucket sealer  had  no  reason  to  doubt  the  existence  of  a Con- 
tinent across  the  channel  from  his  anchorage.  He  not  only  had 
a long  period  in  which  to  observe,  but  he  gives  bearings  which 
enable  one  to  trace  his  five-day  cruise.  Most  important  of  all 
is  the  record  of  the  log  itself : “Land  from  South  to  ESE  which 
I suppose  to  be  a Continent.” 

On  the  following  day  Captain  Burdick  continued: 

Friday  the  16 

Begins  with  moderate  Breezes  at  NE  Got  all  the  men  on  shore 
to  take  seal  drove  up  four  hundred  and  nocked  them  Down.  The 
wind  shifting  in  to  the  SW  which  making  a bad  harbor  where  [we] 
lay  took  8 men  on  board  and  got  under  way  and  shifted  her  round 
on  the  NE  side  and  anchored  and  at  8 P.M.  we  had  got  400  skins 
on  Board.  So  Ends  these  24  hours. 

Saturday  the  17 

Begins  with  fresh  breezes  at  NE  and  thick  whether.  Sent  the 
Boat  on  shore  . . . returned  with  30  skins.  It  Blowing  a hard  gale 
right  into  the  harbor  we  lay  in  hoisted  in  the  Boat  and  got  under- 
way and  Beat  out  after  clearing  the  Land.  Double  refd  the  sail  and 
stood  to  Northward.  So  Ends  with  hard  gale  and  thick  snow. 

Sunday  the  18 

. . . Made  President  Island  bearing  NE  stood  close  in  with  it  and 
tacked  off  to  Southward  at  4 P.M.  more  moderate  wind  canting  to 
South,  tacked  and  steered  ENE  at  8 made  Deception  Island.  Middle 
and  Latter  part  Light  wind  making  the  best  of  our  way  for  Yanky 
harbor. 

Wednesday  the  28 

. . . Capt.  Inott  of  the  ship  Samuel  from  Nantucket  came  into 
our  harbor  . . . brought  me  a package  of  letters. 

Captain  Burdick  sailed  for  home  on  March  11,  and  arrived 
June  10. 

T 

JL  HE  log-book  entry  in  the  cruise  of  the  sloop  Hero , which 
Colonel  Martin  believes  substantiates  Captain  Nathaniel  Palmer’s 
claim  to  the  discovery  of  Antarctica,  is  as  follows: 


THE  FIRST  RECOGNITION  OF  ANTARCTICA 


i7 


Friday  November  17th  [1826] 

These  24  hours  commences  with  fresh  Breeses  from  SWest  and 
Pleasant  at  8 P M.  got  over  under  the  land  found  the  sea  filled  with 
imense  Ice  Bergs  at  12  hove  Too  under  the  Jib  Laid  off  & on  until 
morning  — at  4 A M made  sail  in  shore  and  discovered  — a strait 
— Trending  SSW  & NNE  — it  was  Literally  filled  with  Ice  and 
the  shore  inaccessible  we  thought  it  not  Prudent  to  Venture  in  ice 
Bore  away  to  the  Northerd  & saw  2 small  Islands  and  the  shore 
every  where  Perpendicular  we  stood  across  towards  friesland 
[Friesland  or  Smith’s  or  Livingston  Island]  Course  NNW  — the 
Latditude  of  the  mouth  of  the  strait  was  63-45  S Ends  with  fine 
weather  wind  at  SSW. 

The  island  sighted  by  Palmer  and  thought  by  Martin  to  be 
Trinity  Island  is  forty  miles  from  the  nearest  South  Shetlands. 
The  strait  which  he  mentions  as  being  filled  with  floating  ice 
is  claimed  by  Colonel  Martin  to  be  Orleans  Channel,  which 
lies  between  the  continental  mainland  of  Antarctica  and  Trinity 
Island;  but  it  is  evident  that  Captain  Palmer  did  not  sail  into 
it.  Although  Colonel  Martin  thinks  that  “it  is  not  clear  whether 
it  was  the  coast  of  the  mainland  or  the  shore  of  these  islands 
that  was  considered  to  be  perpendicular,”  the  present  writer 
believes  that  Palmer  had  the  precipitous  shores  of  Tower 
and  Trinity  Islands  in  mind. 

H.  R.  Mill,  the  eminent  British  authority,  writing  in  his  The 
Siege  of  the  South  Pole,  believes  that  Palmer  actually  saw  the 
littoral  around  Anvers  Island,  as  did,  a decade  later,  Captain 
John  Biscoe.6  Certain  it  is  that  “Palmer’s  Land”  was  for  years 
attached  to  an  island  archipelago,  as  the  many  maps  cited  by 
William  PI.  Hobbs  indicate.7 

The  subsequent  voyagings  of  the  Hero  in  January  1821  were 
uneventful.  There  is  no  record  of  a trip  south  along  Palmer 
Peninsula  as  far  as  Marguerite  Bay.  Captain  Palmer  is  alleged 
to  have  made  this  important  exploration,  but  the  claim  was 
made  long  afterwards,  and  his  log-book  entries  make  no  men- 
tion of  the  land. 

J.  N.  Reynolds,  in  a Congressional  Report  of  1828,  stated 
that  Captain  Benjamin  Pendleton  “discovered  a bay,  clear  of 
ice,  into  which  he  run  for  a great  distance,  but  did  not  ascertain 
its  full  extent  south.”8  And  Captain  Edmund  Fanning,  in  his 
Voyages,  published  first  in  1833,  credits  Pendleton  with  the  ac- 


i8 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 


tual  discovery  of  Antarctica,  declaring  that  he  sighted  it  first 
from  the  peak  of  Deception  Island.9  According  to  Fanning, 
Captain  Palmer  was  sent  by  Pendleton,  who  was  in  command 
of  the  Stonington  fleet,  to  investigate  the  land.  Unquestionably 
he  was  so  dispatched,  but  his  object  was  to  hunt  for  seals;  his 
log  book  on  November  1820  reveals  no  suspicion  that  he  had 
seen  the  great  southern  polar  continent,  if  he  did  actually  ob- 
serve the  land  mass  at  all.  He  merely  describes  the  discovery 
of  a “strait.”  Fanning’s  account  of  the  meeting  between  Cap- 
tain Palmer  and  the  Russian  Vice-Admiral  Thaddeus  von 
Bellingshausen  in  January  1821,  when  the  Russian  explorer 
was  in  the  South  Shetlands,10  is  disappointing.  The  translation 
of  the  Russian  navigator’s  account11  does  not  contain  the  story 
of  the  American  mariner;  nor  does  it  bear  any  resemblance  to 
the  elaborate  version  given  by  Captain  Palmer’s  niece,  Mrs. 
Richard  Fanning  Loper,  in  1907, 12  or  to  that  of  J.  R.  Spears  a 
few  years  later.13  Palmer’s  joint  voyage  with  Captain  Powell, 
the  British  sealer,  to  the  South  Orkneys  in  1821  is  a much  more 
conclusive  exploration. 

Dumont  d’Urville,  the  French  Admiral,  sighted  and  named 
the  northeast  end  of  Orleans  Channel  in  1838.  Eduard  Dall- 
mann,  on  his  voyage  of  1874,  merely  gave  it  a cursory  exam- 
ination.14 Both  were  prevented  from  exploring  the  channel  by 
the  presence  of  the  ice-fields  and  a heavy  fog  which  shrouded 
the  entire  area  constantly.  The  Belgian  Expedition  of  1898-99 
further  explored  the  coast;  and  in  1912  the  French  Hydro- 
graphic  Office  brought  out  a map  of  the  South  Shetlands  show- 
ing the  results  of  Charcot’s  explorations  in  1903-05  and  1908-09.15 

The  British  base  their  claim  to  the  Palmer  Peninsula,  which 
they  call  Graham  Land,  on  the  voyage  of  Captain  Biscoe,  in 
the  brig  Tula,  in  1831-32,  as  “communicated  by  Messrs  Ender- 
by  in  1833.”  This  was  a truly  magnificent  Antarctic  circum- 
navigation. But  Biscoe  did  not  even  venture  as  close  to  the 
land  as  did  the  sealers.  The  British  mariner  refers  to  land 
sighted  as  “Palmer’s  Land,”  thus  revealing  a contact  with  seal- 
ers, and  Mill  states  that  “As  a matter  of  historic  justice,  it 
seems  to  us  that  Powell’s  name  of  Palmer  Land  ought  to  be 
retained  for  the  whole  group  of  islands,  and  possible  contin- 
ental peninsula  south  of  the  South  Shetlands.”16 


THE  FIRST  RECOGNITION  OF  ANTARCTICA  19 


Captain  Burdick  made  two  more  voyages  to  the  South  Shet- 
lands,  and  then  sold  the  Huntress  and  purchased  larger  craft 
for  the  coasting  trade  between  Nantucket  and  mainland  ports. 

{In  connection  with  the  publication  of  this  article , an  exhibit  of 
rare  maps , atlases,  and  accounts  of  famous  voyages  has  been  ar- 
ranged in  the  Treasure  Room  of  the  Library.) 


Notes 

1.  James  Cook,  A Voyage  towards  the  South  Pole,  and  round  the  World, 
London  1777,  231. 

2.  Charles  Wilkes,  Narrative  of  the  United  States  Exploring  Expedition 
during  the  Years  1838-1842,  Philadelphia  1845.  Dumont  D’Urville,  Voyage  au 
Pole  Sud  et  dans  VOceanie  sur  les  corvettes  I’Astrolabe  et  la  Zelee  execute  par 
ordre  du  Roi  pendant  1837-40,  Paris  1841-45. 

3.  Lawrence  Martin,  “Antarctica  Discovered  by  a Connecticut  Yankee, 
Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer,”  Geographical  Review,  XXX  (October 
1940),  529-52. 

4.  J.  Miers,  “Account  of  the  Discovery  of  New  South  Shetland,”  Edin- 
burgh Philosophical  Journal,  III  (1820),  367-80. 

5.  William  Herbert  Hobbs,  “The  Discoveries  of  Antarctica  within  the 
American  Sector,”  Transactions  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  XXXI 
(1939),  8-71. 

6.  Hugh  R.  Mill,  The  Siege  of  the  South  Pole,  New  York  1905,  161-2. 

7.  Hobbs,  op.  cit. 

8.  J.  N.  Reynolds;  Report  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  September  24, 
1828,  23rd  Congress  2nd  Session,  House  Document  105,  1835,  26-7. 

9.  Edmund  Fanning,  Voyages  & Discoveries  in  the  South  Seas,  1792-1832, 
Salem  1924,  306-9. 

10.  I bid.,  307-9. 

11.  The  Voyage  of  Captain  Bellingshausen  to  the  Antarctic  Seas,  1819-21, 
Frank  Debenham,  ed.,  London  1945,  xxv-xxvi,  425-6. 

12.  Mrs.  Richard  Fanning  Loper,  article  in  the  New  London  Globe,  Janu- 
ary 28,  1907. 

13.  J.  R.  Spears,  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer,  New  York  1922. 

14.  A.  Schiick,  “Entwickelung  unserer  Kenntniss  der  Lander  im  Suden 
von  America,”  Zeitschrift  fur  wissenschaftliche  Geographic,  VI,  242-64. 

15-  Jean  Charcot,  The  Voyage  of  the  “Why  Not?”  in  the  Antarctic,  New 
York,  London  [1911]. 

16.  Mill,  op.  cit.,  162. 


The  Life  of  St.  Augustine  in  Pictures 

By  ELLEN  M.  OLDHAM 

A VALUABLE  addition  to  the  Library’s  collection  of 
medieval  manuscripts  is  a Vita  S.  Augustini  written  and 
illustrated  about  1460  in  Germany,  probably  at  Augs- 
burg. It  is  a volume  consisting  of  fifty-four  leaves  of  paper, 
measuring  ii/4  by  inches.  The  narrative  is  divided  into 
one  hundred  and  twenty-four  “chapters”  of  five  or  six  lines 
apiece,  each  illustrated  by  a picture  painted  in  water  colors.  The 
pictures  are  five  inches  in  width;  their  height  varies  from  three 
to  five  and  a half  inches.  Four  leaves  are  missing,  with  the  con- 
sequent loss  of  chapters  one  to  four  and  twenty-two  to  twenty- 
five.  The  original  boards,  backed  with  leather,  have  been  pre- 
served. A note  written  by  a Brother  Joannes  in  1591  shows  that 
the  book  once  belonged  to  a house  of  the  Hermits  of  St.  Au- 
gustine. 

The  principal  interest  of  the  volume  lies  in  the  fact  that  it 
represents  a popularization  of  book  making,  due  to  the  use  of 
cursive  script  and  rapid  pen  drawing  instead  of  a formal  hand 
and  the  elaborate  work  of  miniaturists.  Because  less  care  was 
taken  of  them,  such  works  have  disappeared,  worn  out  from 
sheer  use.  But  for  a time,  after  the  introduction  of  rag  paper, 
they  were  common.  Most  surviving  copies  come  from  Germany, 
and  were  produced  in  secular  rather  than  monastic  workshops. 
It  would  be  interesting  to  know  whether  the  Library’s  volume 
was  originally  owned  by  a layman  and  only  later  reached  a 
monastery,  or  was  from  the  first  in  the  possession  of  a religious 
establishment. 

The  popular  manuscripts  are  undoubtedly  related  to  the 
early  block-books,  intended  for  a similar  clientele.  Though 
pen-drawing  and  wood-engraving  were  separate  art  forms,  the 
two  exercised  a profound  influence  on  each  other.  Sequences 
of  illustration  have  been  preserved  showing  that  woodcutters 
took  over  the  forms  of  representation  introduced  by  draughtsmen, 
while  after  1460,  in  the  region  of  Augsburg  at  least,  the  pen- 
and-ink  sketches  show  a technique  closely  related  to  the  an- 


20 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  AUGUSTINE  IN  PICTURES 


21 


gularity  natural  to  the  use  of  wood-cutting  tools.  The  drawings 
in  the  Library’s  manuscript  possess  these  characteristics.  Pos- 
sibly they  even  had  an  engraved  prototype.  One  illustration 
shows  a group  of  soldiers  carrying  the  bier  of  St.  Augustine 
into  Pavia  — but  the  head  of  the  important  character  does  not 
appear;  it  has  been  cut  off  by  the  left-hand  upright  of  the 
frame!  If  deliberate,  this  would  be  a curious  touch  for  a fifteenth- 
century  artist,  working  in  the  normal  fashion  from  left  to 
right.  An  explanation  might  be  the  copying  of  a woodcut,  where 
the  workman  accidentally  ran  out  of  space  on  the  right  side  of 
his  block,  which  was  then  reversed  in  the  printing. 

Some  remarks  must  be  made  about  the  artist’s  technique  of 
drawing  and  painting.  Each  picture  was  first  drawn  in  a fine 
and  careful  pen  outline,  and  then  much  of  the  work  was  gone  over 
again  with  a thicker,  clumsier  brush  stroke  by  the  painter 
(probably  a different  person),  some  details  being  completely 
obscured.  This  practice  gives  an  appearance  of  greater  crudity 
of  workmanship  than  is  actually  the  case.  The  backgrounds 
are  for  the  most  part  a simple  indication  of  blue  sky  and  yel- 
lowish-green foreground,  with  a tree  or  two  in  scenes  with  a 
garden.  The  furniture  is  reduced  to  a bishop’s  throne,  a bench, 
or  a bed,  while  a few  drawings  have  the  architectural  setting 
of  monastery,  school,  or  city.  The  colors  used  are  a vitreous 
blue,  in  which  the  particles  of  glass  may  still  be  seen  where  it 
has  been  applied  thickly;  a dusty  rose,  vermillion  (for  the  frames), 
green,  yellow,  and  black,  with  gray  for  details  in  the  black 
habits.  The  Saint’s  mother,  Monica,  everywhere  appears  in  a 
blue  cloak,  white  veil,  and  rose  dress.  The  child  Augustine  is 
in  blue ; as  a youth  he  wears  a fur-trimmed  garment  with  a cap ; 
after  his  baptism  he  is  depicted  in  the  black  robe  of  a monk,  to 
which  are  added  a cloak  and  mitre  upon  his  elevation  to  the  epis- 
copate. Many  of  the  scenes  contain  only  two  or  three  figures, 
and  the  perspective  is  naive  and  rarely  successful.  Often  the 
paint  is  applied  in  a solid  mass  with  straight  lines  for  folds. 
However,  at  times  a more  discriminating  use  of  the  color,  to- 
gether with  the  hatchwork  and  shading  of  the  draughtsman, 
produce  an  effect  of  chiaroscuro. 

The  influence  of  St.  Augustine  throughout  the  Middle  Ages 
needs  no  discussion  here.  Nevertheless,  it  may  be  of  interest 


22 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

to  point  out  that  in  the  De  Ricci  Census  of  Medieval  and  Renais- 
sance Manuscripts  in  America  more  space  is  devoted  to  his  works 
than  to  those  of  any  other  individual.  Over  two  hundred  entries 
appear,  his  closest  rivals  being  Aristotle,  Cicero,  and  St.  Ber- 
nard. The  Gesamtkatalog  der  Wiegendrucke  lists  seventy  editions 
of  the  genuine  works  and  one  hundred  and  five  of  the  supposi- 
titious ones.  Although  St.  Augustine  never  drew  up  a monastic 
code  in  the  same  sense  as  St.  Benedict,  his  writings  on  the  re- 
ligious life  became  the  basis  for  a great  many  orders  of  both 
men  and  women.  The  Premonstratensians,  Servites,  Ursulines, 
and  Knights  Hospitallers  are  but  a few  of  these.  In  the  thir- 
teenth century  a number  of  monastic  societies  were  combined 
to  form  the  Hermits  of  St.  Augustine.  Such  a move  had  become 
necessary  because  many  independent  bodies  had  adopted  the 
“Rule  of  St.  Augustine”  while  each  kept  some  distinctive 
feature  of  customs  or  dress.  The  order  flourished,  and  especial- 
ly in  Germany  many  large  monasteries  grew  up.  By  the  four- 
teenth century  the  relaxation  of  discipline  led  to  reform  move- 
ments, in  which  the  German  houses  were  again  the  most  promi- 
nent. It  was  to  a reformed  monastery  of  the  Augustinians  that 
Martin  Luther  belonged. 

The  Order  of  Canons  Regular,  another  important  group, 
stemmed  from  Augustine’s  insistence  on  following  a life  of 
rule  even  within  the  Episcopal  palace.  The  institution  of  canons 
can  be  traced  to  early  Christian  times,  for  they  are  simply  the 
clergy  attached  to  a cathedral;  however,  many  placed  them- 
selves under  Augustine’s  patronage  and  practiced  his  precepts. 
The  Hospice  at  the  St.  Bernard  Pass  in  the  Alps  is  served  by 
members  of  an  Augustinian  congregation,  and  Erasmus  and 
Thomas  a Kempis  were  members  of  the  Brothers  and  Sisters 
of  the  Common  Life,  an  institute  under  the  spiritual  guidance 
of  canons  regular. 

The  pictorial  treatment  of  St.  Augustine’s  life  was  a great 
subject,  not  so  much  in  the  bare  outline  of  events  as  in  the  es- 
sential aspects  of  his  teachings.  The  compiler  was  careful  to 
give  his  sources  (underlined  in  red  ink)  at  the  end  of  each  chap- 
ter. In  common  with  all  writers,  before  and  since,  he  took  for 
a starting  point  Augustine’s  own  Confessions , which  includes 
the  famous  account  of  his  youth  and  his  conversion  at  the  age 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  AUGUSTINE  IN  PICTURES  23 

of  thirty-three.  The  biographical  features  of  the  first  nine 
books  of  this  work  fill  forty-five  chapters  of  the  volume.  The 
later  material  is  taken  primarily  from  Possidius’s  Vita  S.  An- 
gustini  and  a group  of  sermons  entitled  Ad  Fratres  in  Eremo. 
Possidius,  a friend  of  St.  Augustine  for  nearly  forty  years,  was 
elected  a bishop  in  Numidia  in  397.  Pie  produced  his  book 
shortly  after  the  death  of  the  Saint.  The  Sermons  to  the  Hermits 
were  edited  in  the  latter  part  of  the  fourteenth  century  by  Jor- 
dan of  Saxony,  of  the  Augustinian  order.  Ten  Latin  and  three 
Italian  printed  editions  indicated  the  popularity  of  this  collec- 
tion in  the  following  century.  But  shortly  thereafter  Erasmus 
wrote,  “Of  all  works  falsely  ascribed  to  St.  Augustine,  nothing 
is  more  absurd  and  impudent  than  the  Sermons  to  the  Hermits, 
in  which  neither  the  words,  nor  thoughts,  nor  affections,  nor 
anything  at  all  is  worthy  of  him.”  Jordan  of  .Saxony’s  work  in- 
cluded various  tracts  and  legends  of  the  life  of  Augustine  and 
his  mother,  and  the  compiler  of  the  Library’s  volume  may 
well  have  made  use  of  it,  for  he  often  remarks  that  certain 
statements  are  “ex  legenda  famosa,”  or  “ex  dictis  suis  et  aliorum 
doctorum.”  The  use  of  the  pseudo-Augustinian  work  probably 
did  not  affect  the  accuracy  of  the  manuscript,  since  the  ma- 
terial is  of  a well-authenticated  character. 

The  first  page  preserved  in  the  volume  shows  Monica  and 
her  husband  Patricius  taking  the  young  Augustine  to  school 
for  the  first  time.  An  early  owner  here,  as  in  many  other  places, 
wrote  the  name  above  each  figure.  Although  simply  drawn, 
the  figures  have  considerable  life.  The  schoolmasters  appar- 
ently were  strict;  there  is  a lively  illustration  of  a story  Augus- 
tine tells  about  his  praying  (unsuccessfully)  that  he  might 
avoid  a beating.  One  boy  is  receiving  a thrashing;  behind  Au- 
gustine, who  is  on  his  knees  with  hands  clasped  in  prayer, 
stands  another  master  armed  with  a switch.  While  the  Saint 
was  still  in  his  teens,  his  father  was  converted  to  Christianity, 
dying  shortly  after.  In  the  usual  fashion,  a tiny  naked  figure 
issues  from  the  old  man’s  mouth,  representing  his  soul,  which 
is  received  by  an  angel.  The  drawing  of  the  bedcovers  and 
Monica’s  grief-stricken  expression  show  the  hand  of  a skillful 
artist. 

The  conversion  of  Augustine  furnished  material  for  several 


24 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

illustrations.  As  he  lies  beneath  a tree  in  the  garden  of  his 
friend  Alypius,  his  book  dropped  carelessly  beside  him,  the 
hand  of  God  reaches  forth  from  the  sky,  red  forks  signifying 
the  divine  intervention.  In  the  right  corner  Augustine  is  de- 
picted again,  telling  Alypius  about  his  experience.  This  me- 
dieval practice  of  compressing  several  sequential  events  into 
one  picture  is  used  in  a number  of  the  drawings.  After  a period 
of  retreat  and  preparation,  Augustine,  together  with  his  son 
Adeodatus  and  Alypius,  is  baptized  by  St.  Ambrose,  Bishop 
of  Milan.  Three  fonts  are  shown,  and  each  candidate  appears 
to  be  standing  in  one,  up  to  his  waist  in  water.  After  the  death 
of  Monica,  a small  band  of  recruits,  Augustine  at  their  head, 
reached  Africa,  and  with  the  help  of  money  from  Valerius,  the 
Bishop  of  Hippo,  a monastery  was  built.  This  is  one  of  the  es- 
pecially charming  pictures.  One  monk  is  mixing  mortar,  an- 
other is  carrying  a bucket  up  a ladder  to  a companion,  and  a 
third  is  standing  upon  scaffolding  working  on  the  still  uncom- 
pleted wall.  The  chapel  wing  is  already  built,  and  the  bell  is 
in  place.  Upon  the  completion  of  the  cloister,  Augustine  pre- 
sents his  hermit  brothers  with  a rule  of  life,  as  they  begin  an 
existence  of  poverty,  possessing  all  things  in  common  and 
practicing  “vigils,  prayers,  and  fasting.”  Here  in  his  beloved 
solitude,  Augustine  spent  much  time  in  contemplation.  A large 
drawing  shows  him  kneeling  on  the  grass,  with  gently  rolling 
hills,  studded  with  a tree  here  and  there.  The  vision  before  his 
uplifted  eyes  is  denoted  by  an  oval  frame  containing  the  tra- 
ditional representation  of  the  Trinity. 

Several  pictures  illustrate  the  daily  life  of  the  monks.  The 
whole  forenoon  the  brothers  devoted  to  worship.  A group 
kneels  before  the  altar,  where  a priest  in  blue  chasuble  is  say- 
ing Mass.  The  artist  is  attentive  to  details : the  facial  expres- 
sions are  well  differentiated,  some  of  the  monks  being  young 
and  clean-shaven  and  others  elderly  with  beards.  While  the 
perspective  of  the  altar  is  inaccurate,  the  carving  of  the  reredos 
is  carefully  done  and  two  parts  of  a triptych  painting  are  clear- 
ly shown.  From  twelve  to  three  the  monks  spent  in  reading 
and  private  prayer.  Then  they  replaced  their  books  and  had 
their  main  meal,  nevertheless  “attending  more  to  the  Word  of 
God  and  the  reading  than  to  the  refreshment  of  the  body.”  One 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  AUGUSTINE  IN  PICTURES  25 

of  the  brothers,  as  was  customary  in  religious  houses,  read 
aloud,  his  volume  resting  upon  a wooden  lectern.  The  table 
is  laid  with  a blue-striped  cloth,  and  each  place  is  set  with  a 
bowl,  a knife,  and  a chunk  of  bread.  The  menu  was  of  herbs  and 
barley  bread  and  included  no  meat  or  fish,  and  but  rarely  but- 
ter, milk,  cabbage,  and  other  vegetables.  After  the  meal,  the  hermits 
busied  themselves  in  the  garden,  or  wherever  there  might  be 
work  to  do;  and  when  vespers  were  over  returned  again  to 
silence.  Several  are  shown  busily  at  work  out  of  doors,  two 
with  axes  cutting  down  a tree,  and  a third  equipped  with  a 
pruning  knife. 

The  fame  of  Augustine’s  sanctity  of  life  caused  him,  much 
against  his  desire,  to  be  ordained  a priest,  that  he  might  preach 
to  the  people  publicly;  and  soon  Valerius  had  him  elevated  to 
a bishopric  to  secure  his  help  for  himself.  In  the  picture  of  the 
consecration  Augustine  kneels  before  an  altar,  two  bishops 
laying  their  hands  upon  his  head.  In  this  scene,  almost  uniquely 
in  the  manuscript,  traces  of  gold  leaf  are  preserved  in  the 
bishops’  mitres  and  croziers. 

It  is  difficult  to  represent  pictorially  a man’s  labors  in  writ- 
ing, but  the  artist  did  his  best.  Augustine  sits  at  his  desk  while 
in  the  lower  right  corner  is  the  head  of  a fierce  monster,  red 
tongues  of  fire  streaming  from  his  open  jaws.  In  the  upper  part 
of  the  drawing  angels  blow  their  trumpets,  and  in  a cloud  ap- 
pears again  the  symbol  of  the  Trinity.  The  text  states  that 
Augustine  is  here  engaged  in  searching  out  the  Unity  and  the 
Trinity,  the  joys  of  paradise,  the  pains  of  purgatory,  and 
the  depths  of  hell.  Some  of  the  Saint’s  famous  sermons  on  na- 
ture are  also  illustrated,  as  well  as  his  many  works  against  the 
Arians  and  other  heretics. 

Six  chapters  show  those  classes  of  people  for  whom,  directly 
or  indirectly,  Augustine  provided  a rule  of  life.  First  come 
prelates  and  clerics,  then  monks  and  other  religious,  nuns  and 
women  living  an  enclosed  life,  holy  virgins,  holy  widows,  good 
husbands  and  wives.  The  Bishop  is  pictured  in  his  daily  life 
visiting  the  sick  and  his  monks,  receiving  penitents,  distribut- 
ing food  to  the  poor,  preaching  to  clerics  and  laity,  and  praying 
for  the  living  and  the  dead  (the  latter  standing  naked  in  the 
midst  of  flames). 


26 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

The  last  months  of  Augustine’s  life  were  troubled  by  the  in- 
cursion of  the  Vandals  and  the  siege  of  Hippo.  The  Bishop  and 
his  monks  may  be  seen  above  the  turreted  walls,  the  gates  be- 
ing stormed  by  armed  soldiers.  A quaint  touch  is  the  stork 
standing  on  her  nest  on  top  of  one  of  the  houses.  At  last  a fatal 
illness  seized  the  Saint,  and  after  his  death  the  body  had  to  be 
carried  to  Sardinia  to  safety.  Years  later  Luitprand,  king  of 
Lombardy,  obtained  permission  to  translate  it  to  Pavia.  The 
body,  clothed  as  in  life,  is  shown  lying  before  the  entrance  to 
the  town.  The  last  scene  of  all  depicts  the  bier  before  the  altar 
of  the  Church  of  San  Pietro  in  Ciel  d’Oro  (where  Augustine’s 
sarcophagus  still  remains)  flanked  by  two  brothers  of  the  Or- 
der of  Hermits  and  two  canons  regular,  joining  in  homage  to 
their  great  patron. 


Civil  War  Sketches 


By  ALISON  BISHOP 

AMONG  the  most  interesting  recent  additions  to  the  Li- 
brary’s Twentieth  Regiment  Collection  are  two  portfolios 
of  rare  Civil  War  etchings  and  lithographs  — Winslow 
Homer’s  Campaign  Sketches , published  in  Boston  by  Louis 
Prang  and  Company  in  1863,  and  A.  J.  Volck’s  Sketches  from 
the  Civil  War  in  North  America , secretly  printed  by  the  artist, 
a Confederate  sympathizer,  in  Baltimore  in  1861-63. 

Winslow  Homer  was  twenty-five  when,  in  the  fall  of  1861, 
he  made  his  first  trip  to  the  front  as  a special  artist  and  corres- 
pondent for  Harper’s  Weekly  with  the  Union  army.  Although 
already  a competent  illustrator  whose  sketches  and  lithographs 
had  appeared  regularly  in  magazines  in  both  New  York  and 
Boston,  he  had  as  yet  given  little  promise  of  the  development 
that  was  to  make  him  one  of  America’s  great  artists.  It  was 
during  his  months  in  the  field  that  he  made  the  realistic  drawings 
which  were  the  basis  for  the  paintings  which  first  made  him 
famous.  Many  of  these  as  they  appeared  in  Harper’s  are  com- 
paratively crude,  but  this  may  have  been  due,  as  Homer’s  biog- 
raphers have  suggested,  to  the  clumsy  way  in  which  they  were 
transferred  to  the  wood  block.  Such  an  explanation  is  supported 
by  the  evidence  of  the  Campaign  Sketches , where  delicacy  of 
line  and  shading  has  been  preserved  by  the  lithographic  process. 

Homer  spent  the  spring  of  1862  with  General  McClellan’s 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  during  the  offensive  against  Richmond. 
He  arrived  in  Alexandria  in  time  to  see  and  record  the  departure 
of  the  Northern  troops,  and  remained  with  them  through  the 
siege  and  capture  of  Yorktown.  Judging  by  his  work  in  Harper’s , 
his  biographers  have  concluded  that  he  did  not  follow  the  troops 
in  their  advance  up  the  peninsula,  nor  see  the  Seven  Days’  Battle 
and  the  disastrous  failure  of  the  campaign. 

The  six  plates  of  Campaign  Sketches,  like  the  drawings  in 
Harper’s,  are  humorous  rather  than  heroic  and  solemn  in  the 
manner  of  much  “war  art.”  Instead  of  vast  battle  panoramas, 
they  show  everyday  life  in  camp,  with  soldiers  eating,  resting, 


27 


28 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

and  playing  cards.  In  “A  Pass  Time:  Cavalry  Rest,”  three  soldiers 
are  sitting  by  a fire  in  a clearing  playing  what  looks  like  some 
form  of  poker.  One,  whose  back  is  to  the  observer,  holds  three 
aces;  four  other  cavalrymen  stand  or  sit  watching  the  game 
with  various  expressions.  In  “The  Coffee  Call”  a crowd  of 
hungry  men  with  tin  cups  is  waiting  before  an  open  fire,  over 
which  rough  pails  of  steaming  coffee  hang  from  a stick.  In  the 
distance,  behind  a cloud  of  smoke  from  the  fire,  can  be  seen 
tents,  covered  wagons,  and  mules,  with  other  figures  running 
towards  the  foreground.  Only  the  plate  entitled  “Foraging,” 
shows  soldiers  on  duty.  Here  cavalrymen  are  taking  a bull 
from  a farmyard,  while  a servant  screams  after  them.  The  bull 
is  shown  charging  wild-eyed  through  a patch  of  cabbages,  the 
soldiers  clinging  to  its  halter.  “Our  Jolly  Cook”  is  in  a still  more 
humorous  vein;  it  shows  a Negro  in  a tasselled  cap  dancing  to 
the  tune  of  a fife,  while  spectators  stand  watching.  In  “The 
Baggage  Train”  two  Negroes  are  sitting  on  the  rear  board  of 
a covered  wagon  as  it  moves  through  the  mud  at  the  end  of  a 
long  line  of  other  wagons.  They  wear  boots  and  broad-brimmed 
old  hats;  one  is  smoking  a pipe,  and  the  other  holds  a whip. 
The  one  serious  subject  of  the  Campaign  Sketches  is  “The  Letter 
for  Home,”  which  portrays  the  interior  of  a hospital  ward  in 
winter.  In  the  foreground  a soldier,  thin  and  worn,  is  dictating 
a letter  to  a nurse  who  sits  on  the  edge  of  his  bed.  In  back  can 
be  seen  rows  of  beds  and  a man  hobbling  on  crutches. 

These  six  plates,  the  actual  drawings  measuring  nine  by 
eleven  inches,  are  extremely  rare  even  individually;  and  there 
are  only  three  or  four  complete  sets  in  existence.  The  Library’s 
copy,  which  includes  the  cover,  is  apparently  unique.  This 
cover,  lithographed  in  red  and  black  on  brown,  shows  a Union 
soldier  in  full-dress  marching  uniform  with  his  pack  and  rifle. 

It  was  probably  one  of  Homer’s  sketches  made  during  his 
first  visit  to  the  front  that  served  as  the  basis  for  his  painting 
of  three  soldiers  at  Camp  Benton,  now  hanging  in  the  Rare 
Book  Department  of  the  Library.  This  painting,  presented  by 
the  Twentieth  Regiment  Association,  was  completed  in  1881, 
at  the  beginning  of  Homer’s  impressionist  period.  Twenty- 
one  by  twenty-three  inches  in  size,  it  shows  Lieutenant  Colonel 
F.  W.  Palfrey  and  Captain  W.  F.  Bartlett  of  the  20th  Massachu- 


One  of  Winslow  Homer's  Campaign  Sketches 
( Greatly  reduced) 


29 


CIVIL  WAR  SKETCHES 


3i 


setts  Volunteers  standing  together  in  conference,  while  a sol- 
dier seems  about  to  give  them  a message.  The  scene  is  a bleak 
morning,  with  a cloudy  sky  broken  by  patches  of  blue.  The  pre- 
dominant colors  are  the  grays,  blues,  and  gray-browns  which 
were  typical  of  Homer’s  work  at  this  time,  when  he  was  preoc- 
cupied with  problems  of  outdoor  light.  In  the  background  can 
be  seen  a row  of  tents  with  figures  moving  about  and  a horse  be- 
side a log  cabin.  The  way  the  painting  catches  what  must  have 
been  the  mood  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  then  is  striking.  The 
Twentieth  Regiment  had  just  passed  through  its  first  bad  fight- 
ing, at  the  Battle  of  Ball’s  Bluff  in  late  October.  Its  losses  had 
been  particularly  heavy,  and  William  Lee,  the  Colonel  of  the 
Regiment,  had  been  captured.  As  the  remnants  straggled  back 
to  Camp  Benton,  Francis  Palfrey  of  Boston  found  himself  the 
only  officer  left  of  the  entire  field  and  military  staff,  and  thus, 
at  the  age  of  thirty,  in  command.  One  of  his  first  acts  was  to  ap- 
point William  Bartlett,  then  twenty-one,  as  second  officer. 

What  artists  like  Winslow  Homer  were  doing  for  the  Union 
cause,  Adalbert  John  Volck,  a Baltimore  dentist  and  printer, 
tried  to  do  for  the  South.  His  Sketches  from  the  Civil  War  in  North 
America  were,  according  to  him,  intended  as  a direct  answer  to 
the  drawings  and  cartoons  then  appearing  in  Northern  papers. 
“The  production  of  these  etchings,”  he  wrote  nearly  half  a cen- 
tury later,  “suggested  itself  to  my  mind  on  seeing  the  illus- 
trated papers  of  the  North  filled  with  one-sided  pictures  of  the 
war,  and  with  villainous  caricatures  — such  for  instance  as 
those  of  that  nastiest  of  caricaturists,  the  notorious  Nast . . . and 
I thought  it  a pity  that  no  pictorial  record  should  issue  from 
the  South.”  (Letter  to  Mrs.  Thomas  Baxter  Gresham,  written 
on  January  21,  1900,  now  in  the  Confederate  Museum,  Rich- 
mond, Virginia.) 

There  has  been  much  bibliographical  confusion  about  this 
work.  The  first  edition  was  issued  under  the  pseudonym  “V. 
Blada”  — Adalbert  Folck  spelled  backwards  — and  the  title 
page  bore  the  words  “London,  1863.”  However,  this  was  only 
a subterfuge  designed  to  trick  the  Union  officials.  Throughout 
the  war  Volck,  a German  immigrant  who  had  taken  part  in  the 
revolutionary  march  on  Berlin  in  1848,  was  a vigorous  sup- 
porter of  the  rebels,  and,  according  to  rumor,  even  served  as 


32 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 


a Confederate  spy.  He  crossed  the  Union  lines  many  times, 
helping-  to  bring  medicine  and  supplies  to  the  Southern  army. 
One  of  the  plates,  “Smuggling  Medicines  into  the  South,” 
shows  this  activity.  It  was  on  these  dangerous  trips  that  Volck 
made  many  of  the  sketches  on  which  he  based  his  etchings. 
“The  drawing,  etching,  and  printing  were  all  done  by  myself 
at  night,”  he  later  recalled,  “after  the  day’s  unintermittent  pro- 
fessional labor.  Of  course  entire  secrecy  had  to  be  preserved. 
The  work  was  begun  about  the  time  of  the  first  Battle  of  Bull 
Run  . . . The  making  of  these  pictures  extended  through  the 
whole  war,  the  last  plate  being  “The  Return  Home  of  Lee’s 
Men,’  but  the  last  eighteen  plates  were  never  printed.  Before 
this  could  be  done,  there  came  Lincoln’s  assassination,  and  the 
danger  of  issuing  the  last  set  was  too  great  to  be  risked.  These 
last  eighteen  plates  were  sent  by  a friend  to  England  to  be 
printed  and  issued  there  . . . Ten  years  afterwards  they  were 
discovered  by  my  brother  . . . completely  ruined.”  (From  the 
letter  to  Mrs.  Gresham.) 

The  original  prospectuses  for  Volck’s  etchings  announced 
a series  of  forty-five  plates.  The  “first  issue”  contained  ten; 
the  “second  and  third  issues”  included  twenty  more,  and  named 
seventeen  additional  drawings  as  being  completed  and  partially 
etched.  The  list  of  these  does  not  include  “The  Return  Home 
of  Lee’s  Men.”  According  to  the  letter  quoted  above,  there 
must  have  been  forty-eight  plates  in  all,  of  which  only  thirty 
were  ever  printed.  However,  in  a letter  of  January  n,  1905, 
now  in  the  Library  of  Congress,  Volck  contradicts  himself, 
stating  that  twenty  unpublished  plates,  not  eighteen,  were  sent 
to  England.  This  would  mean  that  he  actually  made  fifty  plates. 

In  any  case,  the  thirty  etchings  which  we  have  are  an  im- 
pressive record  of  the  war  as  seen  from  the  Southern  view- 
point. Compared  with  Homer’s  lithographs,  they  are  classical, 
with  sharp  outlines  and  very  little  shading.  Many  of  the  more 
serious  plates  recall  the  work  of  John  Flaxman  and  other  Bri- 
tish artists;  and  even  the  most  bitter  caricatures  are  restrained 
in  style  if  not  in  feeling.  In  the  first  plate,  “Worship  of  the 
North,”  a white  man  is  being  sacrificed  before  a Negro  idol,  on 
an  altar  of  which  the  stones  are  labelled  “Puritanism,”  “Social- 
ism,” “Free  Love,”  “Negro  Worship,”  etc.  Many  of  the  North- 


CIVIL  WAR  SKETCHES 


33 


ern  leaders  are  present  as  worshippers,  with  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
officiating  as  priest  and  Horace  Greeley  swinging  a censer  full 
of  vipers.  “The  Emancipation  Proclamation”  shows  Lincoln 
writing  while  trampling  on  the  Constitution;  a grinning  devil 
holds  his  inkpot.  Consistently,  Northerners  are  portrayed  as 
ugly,  cowardly,  and  cruel.  They  are  shown  burning  homes  and 
killing  women  and  children.  Two  plates,  “Free  Negroes  in  the 
North”  and  “Free  Negroes  in  Haiti,”  illustrate  the  horrors  of 
Emancipation.  Southerners,  on  the  other  hand,  are  depicted 
as  noble,  handsome,  and  brave.  Etchings  show  women  sewing 
for  the  army  and  giving  up  their  household  goods,  and  soldiers 
praying,  fighting,  and  sacrificing  home  and  family. 

The  Library’s  set  of  Volck’s  etchings  is  complete,  with  the 
plates  all  clean  and  in  fresh  state;  only  the  title  page  is  in  fac- 
simile. It  also  has  copies  of  the  editions  of  1880-94  and  1917. 
Volck  made  other  series  of  drawings  during  the  Civil  War, 
though  of  lesser  importance,  and  the  Library  has  a second  edi- 
tion of  his  Ye  Exploits  of  . . . Bombastes  Furioso  Buncombe , 186-?, 
a set  of  caricatures  of  General  Benjamin  Franklin  Butler. 

The  Twentieth  Regiment  Collection  contains  a vast  amount 
of  pictorial  material  on  the  Civil  War.  Particularly  interesting  are 
twenty  lithographs  of  battles,  camps,  skirmishes,  and  marches 
by  a Union  soldier,  printed  in  Cincinnati  in  1862.  The  artist, 
J.  Nep  Roesler,  was  a corporal  of  the  Color  Guard  Company  in 
the  47th  Ohio  Volunteers,  and  served  during  the  campaign  in 
that  part  of  Virginia  which  is  now  West  Virginia.  Most  of 
these  lithographs  have  romantic  landscape  backgrounds,  with 
plenty  of  trees  and  clouds,  but  the  figures  of  the  soldiers,  clus- 
tered around  a campfire  or  sleeping  with  their  caps  tilted  over 
their  faces,  are  lively  and  realistic.  Perhaps  the  best  is  “Tomp- 
kin’s  Farm,”  where  the  rows  of  peaked  tents,  the  white  frame 
houses,  and  the  tiny  soldiers  drilling  with  rifles  in  a field  recall 
the  work  of  the  American  primitive  painters. 

The  lithographs  and  etchings  discussed  here  will  be  on  view 
in  the  Treasure  Room  throughout  January  and  February. 


Lydia  Maria  Child  and  Anti-Slavery 

By  ETHEL  K.  WARE 

( Continued  from  the  October  1951  issue ) 

IN  1852  the  Childs  retired  to  the  Francis  farm  at  Wayland, 
Massachusetts,  so  that  Mrs.  Child  could  care  for  her  father, 
who  was  ill.  Her  brother,  James  Francis,  lived  half  a mile 
away.  Wayland,  originally  a part  of  Sudbury,  had  been  set  off 
in  1780  as  East  Sudbury,  but  in  March  1835  it  was  renamed 
Wayland  in  honor  of  Francis  Wayland,  President  of  Brown 
University.  In  the  census  of  1850,  just  prior  to  the  Childs’ 
settlement  there,  the  population  numbered  1,115.  About  fifteen 
miles  from  Boston,  the  Francis-Child  cottage  was  on  the  road 
from  Wayland  to  Sudbury.  Though  the  furniture  was  plain 
and  old-fashioned,  Mrs.  Child  had  many  pictures  and  keepsakes 
of  all  kinds.  In  the  town  of  Wayland  Center,  through  which  a 
stagecoach  passed  twice  a day,  was  located  the  first  free  pub- 
lic library  in  the  state,  founded  at  public  expense  in  1848. 

With  the  Compromise  measure  of  1850,  the  slavery  issue 
seemed  settled.  Yet  the  second  phase  of  the  fight  was  just  in 
the  making.  Mrs.  Child,  although  busy  with  household  duties, 
accomplished  considerable  writing.  In  1853  she  published  Isaac 
T.  Hopper , a True  Life , an  appreciation  of  the  old  Quaker  abo- 
litionist, full  of  lively  dramatic  episodes  of  his  help  to  Negroes 
in  danger  or  distress.  In  1855  appeared  her  three-volume  work 
on  comparative  religion,  The  Progress  of  Religious  Ideas,  the 
result  of  years  of  study.  In  the  preface  she  warned:  “I  would 
candidly  advise  persons  who  are  conscious  of  bigoted  attach- 
ment to  any  creed  or  theory,  not  to  purchase  this  book.  Wheth- 
er they  are  bigoted  Christians,  or  bigoted  infidels,  its  tone  will 
be  likely  to  displease  them.”  And  she  added:  “My  motive  in 
writing  has  been  a very  simple  one.  I wished  to  show  that  theology 
is  not  religion ; with  the  hope  that  I might  help  to  break  down 
partition  walls;  to  ameliorate  what  the  eloquent  Bushnell  calls 
‘baptized  hatreds  of  the  human  race.’  ”x 

After  the  turmoil  of  Boston  and  New  York,  the  Childs  en- 


34 


LYDIA  MARIA  CHILD  AND  ANTI-SLAVERY 


35 


joyed  their  retirement  at  Wayland.  Her  father’s  death  in  De- 
cember, 1856,  caused  Maria  many  “sad,  lonely  hours,”  but  she 
soon  settled  down  to  work.  Her  interest  in  public  affairs  was 
unflagging.  Commenting  on  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe’s  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin , she  remarked  that  it  had  “done  much  to  command 
respect  for  the  faculties  of  women.”  With  “towering  indigna- 
tion” she  realized  that  women  were  made  chattels,  “perpetu- 
ally insulted  by  literature,  law,  and  custom”  — she  had  been 
obliged  to  have  even  her  own  will  signed  by  her  husband.  She 
noticed  a lull  in  fugitive  slave  activities.  The  Senate  that  passed 
the  Nebraska  bill  she  branded  as  the  most  “completely  servile 
of  all  our  servile  Senates.”2  Diagnosing  the  situation,  she  wrote  : 
“The  South  understands  her  own  interest  too  well  to  secede,” 
and  “I  am  out  of  patience  with  the  North.  I don’t  blame  the 
slaveholders  for  kicking  and  cuffing  us;  for  obviously  we  are 
of  the  stuff  that  slaves  are  made  of.”3  She  quoted  her  old  father 
as  saying:  “My  first  vote  was  given  for  Washington  and  my 
last  shall  be  given  for  Fremont.”4  Her  own  hopes  were  set  on 
this  candidate.  “I  shall  not  live  to  see  women  vote,”  she  wrote 
to  her  friend  Mrs.  S.  B.  Shaw;  “but  I’ll  come  and  rap  at  the 
ballot-box.  Won’t  you?  I never  was  bitten  by  politics  before  . . .”5 
Outraged  by  the  assault  on  Charles  Sumner  in  the  Senate,  she 
wrote  Theodore  Parker  about  a project  for  a statue  commemorating 
Sumner’s  defence  of  Kansas,  but  Parker  replied,  June  5,  1856,  that 
he  would  rather  put  the  $1,500  into  corn  and  gunpowder  for 
the  men  in  Lawrence,  Kansas.6  On  December  25,  1859,  she 
wrote  to  Samuel  E.  Sewall,  next  to  Ellis  Gray  Loring  her 
closest  friend:  “May  God  keep  Charles  Sumner’s  garments 
spotless.  He  is  the  only  one  of  our  Representatives  in  whose 
integrity  1 have  implicit  trust.  If  he  falls  from  his  pedestal,  I 
shall  never  set  up  another  idol.”7 

SlNCE  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  of  1854,  the  Free-Soil  con- 
test had  for  many  people  in  New  England  the  nature  of  a cru- 
sade. They  subsidized  the  Kansas  immigrants,  made  them 
clothes,  and  even  supplied  arms  and  ammunition  for  them. 
Members  of  the  Massachusetts  State  Kansas  Committee  en- 
couraged John  Brown  in  his  plot  to  free  the  slaves  by  force.  It 


3^ 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 


is  true  that  they  advised  delay,  but  they  also  supplied  him  with 
$3,800.  Mrs.  Child  had  not  followed  Higginson,  Parker,  Samuel 
G.  Plowe,  and  others  in  supporting  Brown,  but  his  capture 
after  his  ill-fated  attack  upon  Harper’s  Ferry  aroused  her  sym- 
pathies. She  wrote  to  Governor  Henry  A.  Wise,  asking  him 
to  transmit  a letter  to  John  Brown,  who  had  been  wounded  in 
the  fight  and  was  now  in  the  Charlestown  jail,  and  to  allow  her 
to  come  down  to  Virginia  and  serve  as  his  nurse.  She  and 
her  large  circle  of  abolitionist  friends,  she  told  him,  were  sur- 
prised at  Brown’s  attempt,  and  she  did  not  know  of  a person 
who  would  have  approved  it.  But  she  was  sorry  for  ‘‘the  brave 
and  suffering  man,”  who  needed  “a  mother  or  sister  to  dress 
his  wounds,  and  speak  soothingly  to  him.”8  She  promised  that 
if  allowed  to  come  she  would  not  advance  her  ideas  about  the 
right  of  the  slave  to  fight  for  his  freedom.  In  his  reply  Gover- 
nor Wise  promised  to  forward  the  letter  to  Brown;  as  to  her 
request  to  be  permitted  to  minister  to  the  prisoner,  he  asked: 
“Why  should  you  not  be  allowed,  Madam?  Virginia  and  Massa- 
chusetts are  involved  in  no  civil  war,  and  the  Constitution 
which  unites  them  in  one  confederacy  guarantees  to  you  privi- 
leges and  immunities  as  a citizen  of  . . . Massachusetts  coming 
into  Virginia  for  any  lawful  and  peaceful  purpose.”  But  at  the 
end  the  Governor  reproved  her:  “His  attempt  was  a natural 
consequence  of  your  sympathy,  and  the  errors  of  that  sym- 
pathy ought  to  make  you  doubt  its  virtue  from  the  effect  on 
his  conduct.”9 

Mrs.  Child’s  answer  was  in  the  vein  of  her  editorials  of  the 
Standard  days.  She  was  aware,  she  wrote,  of  her  constitutional 
rights,  but  she  had  found  in  many  cases  that  the  Constitution 
had  been  “completely  and  systematically  nullified  whenever  it 
suited  the  convenience  or  the  policy  of  the  Slave  Power.”  John 
Brown’s  methods  were  sanctioned  by  his  religious  views.  Was 
not  Governor  Wise  himself  treasonable  when  he  boasted  that 
he  would  rout  government  troops  if  they  attempted  to  stop  the 
invasion  of  Mexico?  “Because  slave-holders  so  recklessly  sowed 
the  wind  in  Kansas,”  she  concluded,  “they  reaped  a whirlwind 
at  Harper’s  Ferry.”10 

John  Brown  himself  expressed  his  gratitude  to  Mrs.  Child, 
but  wrote  that  he  was  under  the  care  of  a “most  humane 


LYDIA  MARIA  CHILD  AND  ANTI-SLAVERY 


37 


gentleman”  and  his  family,  and  had  recovered  from  his  wounds 
enough  not  to  need  nursing.  He  suggested  that  instead  she 
help  his  wife,  three  daughters,  two  widowed  daughters-in-law, 
and  a Mrs.  Thompson,  also  widowed  in  the  cause.  He  also  had 
a crippled  son,  now  destitute,  and  “no  living  son,  or  son-in-law, 
who  did  not  suffer  terribly  in  Kansas.”11  A pledge  of  fifty  cents 
now,  and  the  same  sum  yearly  from  her  and  each  of  her  friends 
for  bread,  clothes,  and  education,  would  be  a real  service. 

In  the  meantime,  contrary  to  her  expectations,  her  corre- 
spondence with  Governor  Wise  was  published  in  the  col- 
umns of  the  New  York  Tribune . As  a result  of  the  publicity,  a 
Mrs.  M.  J.  C.  Mason  of  King  George’s  County,  Virginia,  came 
into  the  controversy,  with  a tirade  beginning:  “Do  you  read 
your  Bible,  Mrs.  Child?  If  you  do,  read  there:  ‘Woe  unto  you, 
hypocrites,’  and  take  to  yourself  with  two-fold  damnation  that 
terrible  sentence.”  Descending  to  a more  mundane  level,  she 
added:  “No  Southerner  ought,  after  your  letter  to  Governor 
Wise  and  to  Brown,  to  read  a line  of  your  composition,  or  to 
touch  a magazine  which  bears  your  name  in  its  list  of  con- 
tributors; and  in  this  we  hope  for  the  ‘sympathy,’  at  least  of 
those  at  the  North  who  deserve  the  name  of  woman.”12  Mrs. 
Child,  in  her  turn,  listed  numerous  quotations  from  the  Bible, 
and  pointed  out  the  evils  of  slavery  as  they  were  exposed  by 
the  statute  books  of  slave  states  and  advertisements  of  South- 
ern papers.  As  to  the  malevolence  called  down  on  her  publica- 
tions, she  replied  that  she  was  in  the  good  company  of  Chan- 
ning,  Bryant,  Whittier,  Lowrell,  Longfellow,  and  Mrs.  Stowe. 
She  released  to  Greeley  both  Mrs.  Mason’s  letter  and  her  reply, 
asking  him  to  print  them  together.  The  whole  Child-Wise- 
Mason  correspondence  was  later  published  in  about  three  hun- 
dred thousand  copies. 

On  November  28,  1859,  Mrs.  Child  wrote  to  one  of  her 
friends,  probably  Anne  W.  Weston: 

I have  been  so  overwhelmed  with  letters  about  John  Brown,  that 
I have  been  kept  in  a whirl  ...  You  can  hardly  conceive  of  the 
violence  and  obscenity  of  those  I receive  from  Virginia.  I did  not 
suppose  that  even  Slavery  could  produce  anything  so  foul  ...  I 
cannot  understand  what  I have  done  to  deserve  so  much  laudation 
on  one  side,  and  so  much  abuse  on  the  other.  It  seemed  to  me  a 


38  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

very  simple  act  of  kindness  to  wish  to  nurse  the  brave  old  man, 
when  I supposed  him  to  be  alone,  helpless  and  bleeding  in  prison. 
The  notoriety  I gained  by  it  was  altogether  unexpected  to  me,  and 
far  from  being  pleasant.  But  since  it  came,  without  my  seeking,  I 
determined  to  make  the  best  use  I could  of  it. 

In  the  same  letter  she  mentioned  her  plan  to  go  to  Boston  to 
help  Garrison  prepare  a meeting  in  honor  of  Brown,  doomed 
to  be  executed,  adding: 

Emerson  writes  to  me : “I  have  hopes  for  his  brave  life.  He  is  one 
for  whom  miracles  wait.”  And  I confess  I have  a little  of  the  same 
hope.  Yet  his  death  would  be  a magnificent  martyrdom.  What  a 
success  he  has  made  of  failure,  by  the  moral  grandeur  of  his  own 
character ! Whether  he  lives  or  dies,  he  has  struck  a blow  at  slavery, 
from  the  effects  of  which  it  will  never  recover.^ 

Four  days  later,  on  December  2,  John  Brown  was  hanged. 

After  Brown’s  death,  Mrs.  Child  fanned  the  flame  of  anti- 
slavery sentiment.  “I  am  willing  to  have  my  name  used  to  any 
extent,”  she  wrote  to  the  same  friend  on  December  22,  1859. 
“I  would  even  use  the  Irish  privilege  of  voting  in  thirteen 
wards  in  one  day  if  it  would  do  any  good.”  She  had  answered 
twenty-three  letters  that  week,  all  but  two  about  John  Brown. 

Others  may  spend  their  time  debating  whether  John  Brown  did 
wrong,  or  not ; whether  he  was  sane,  or  not ; all  I know,  or  care  to 
know,  is  that  his  example  has  stirred  me  up  to  concentrate  my- 
self with  renewed  earnestness  to  the  righteous  cause  for  which  he 
died  so  bravely  . . . 

I have  just  received  an  invitation  to  write  for  the  Independent, 
on  my  own  terms  ...  I don’t  like  the  course  of  the  Independent,  in 
several  respects.  How  inconsistent  in  H.  W.  Beecher  to  send  rifles 
to  Kansas,  and  then  deny  that  the  slaves  have  a right  to  fight  for 
their  freedom ! His  moral  principles  seem  to  be  as  much  blurred 
as  his  theological  doctrines  ...  I did  not  go  into  any  particulars  in 
my  reply  to  the  proposition.  I merely  wrote : “It  would  not  be 
agreeable  to  me  to  write  for  a paper,  that  has  dealt  so  unjustly  by 
William  Lloyd  Garrison  . . .”*■* 

A few  days  later  she  wrote  Maria  Chapman  that  Wendell  Phil- 
lips had  rlso  been  asked  to  write  for  the  Independent.  “Wendell 
is  orthodox,”  she  remarked,  “and  so  I suppose  would  like  the 
paper  better  than  I do.”  However,  she  seems  to  have  changed 
her  mind  some  years  later  and  sent  occasional  articles  for  the 


LYDIA  MARIA  CHILD  AND  ANTI-SLAVERY  39 

journal  to  Theodore  Tilton  — “the  only  sound  timber  in  the 
fabric.”15 

In  the  following  January  she  related  the  story  of  John  Brown 
to  sympathizers  in  other  countries.  She  addressed  a letter  to 
Queen  Victoria,  which  she  tried  to  transmit  through  the  Bri- 
tish ambassador  at  Washington  who,  however,  civilly  informed 
her  that  he  could  not  be  the  channel.  “I  thought  if  I could  in- 
terest the  queen  personally  ,”  she  wrote  Anne  Weston,  “it  would 
do  more  good  than  any  efforts  with  Colonial  Legislatures. 
Such  bodies  have  no  soul  . . .”  Further,  she  wanted  Mrs.  Chap- 
man to  ask  Harriet  Martineau  whether  some  English  journal 
would  like  several  articles  showing  the  antecedent  causes  of 
the  Brown  incident.  She  also  wished  to  send  her  Wise-Mason 
correspondence  to  Victor  Hugo,  Kossuth,  Mazzini,  Mary 
Howitt,  the  editor  of  the  London  Advertiser , and  Punch.  How- 
ever, she  soon  changed  her  mind,  writing:  “You  need  take  no 
further  trouble  about  that  London  Correspondence.  I have 
given  it  up,  in  disgust.  I don’t  like  the  look  of  it.  I am  not  the 
person  to  write  ‘statesman-like’  letters,  and  I don’t  like  to  deal 
with  ‘precise’  people,  like  your  English.  So  good-bye  to  that 
project.  I have  another  in  my  head,  which  I like  better  . . .”l6 

The  suggestion  had  been  made  that  she  write  an  explanation 
of  John  Brown’s  foray.  “But,”  she  confessed,  “I  can’t  explain 
it.  The  more  I cogitate  upon  it,  the  more  unaccountable  it 
seems  to  me  that  any  man  in  his  senses  could  have  undertaken 
such  an  enterprise.” 

N EXT,  Mrs.  Child  turned  her  attention  to  the  case  of 
Thomas  Sims.  On  September  9,  i860,  she  received  a letter  from 
Francis  Jackson  in  answer  to  her  request  for  facts.  Jackson  re- 
lated the  following  story:  Sims,  a mason,  was  a mulatto  about 
twenty-three  years  old.  Claimed  by  James  Potter  of  Savannah, 
he  was  arrested  in  Boston  on  April  10,  1851,  and  falsely  charged 
with  stealing  a watch.  He  was  imprisoned  in  the  city  court 
house,  tried,  and  later  taken  down  Long  Wharf  to  the  brig 
Acorn,  bound  for  Savannah.  By  order  of  the  Mayor,  a regiment 
of  infantry  quartered  in  Faneuil  Hall  and  a militia  of  fifteen 
hundred  merchants  were  on  duty  for  the  occasion  — the  cost 


40 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 


to  the  City,  all  in  all,  being  $2,996.95.  Money  enough  was  raised 
to  ransom  Sims,  but  Potter  refused  to  sell  him  at  any  price  — 
“he  wanted  to  humble  Boston.”  Sims,  delivered  to  his  master’s 
overseer,  was  whipped  and  thrown  into  jail,  where  he  sickened, 
and  was  taken  out  only  because  he  would  otherwise  have  died. 
Some  time  after  he  had  recovered,  he  was  consigned  for  sale 
to  a broker,  who  finally  bought  Sims  himself  and  shipped  him 
to  New  Orleans  “on  speculation.”  There  he  was  sold  to  a 
mason  at  Vicksburg,  for  whom  he  acted  “as  his  boss  and  is  an 
expert  bricklayer.”  At  the  close  of  his  letter  Jackson  reminded 
Mrs.  Child  that  since  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1850  three 
fugitives  had  been  arrested  in  Boston  — Shadrack,  Sims,  and 
Burns.  Shadrack  had  been  rescued,  and  Burns  ransomed.  “Sims 
had  as  good  a right  to  live  in  Boston  as  ever  I had,”  he  wrote, 
and  asked,  “Are  those  who  enslaved  him  going  to  let  him  die 
in  Slavery  and  they  in  their  sins?”17 

Mrs.  Child  informed  Samuel  Sewall  that  she  was  going  “to 
speak  to  several  wealthy  gentlemen  about  the  purchase  of 
Thomas  Sims,”  whose  master  was  charging  $1,800  for  him  “on 
account  of  his  intelligence  and  mechanical  skill.”  Years  later, 
she  described  the  results  of  an  interview:  General  Devens  had 
given  her  the  money  for  Sims’s  redemption,  with  the  understand- 
ing that  there  was  to  be  no  publicity.  While  she  was  consulting 
with  friends  how  best  to  negotiate  with  the  slave-owner,  the 
guns  of  Fort  Sumter  were  fired.  Sims  took  refuge  in  a Union 
camp.  He  subsequently  came  to  Boston,  and  “I  heard,”  she 
wrote,  “that  General  Devens  gave  him  $100  to  help  set  him  up 
in  business.”18 

In  i860  she  published  The  Right  Way  the  Safe  Way,  a study 
of  emancipation  based  on  detailed  knowledge  of  what  had 
taken  place  in  the  British  West  Indies.  She  had  consulted  Sam- 
uel J.  May  beforehand,  writing  to  him  on  February  26: 

You  will  perhaps  wonder  that  I leave  out  the  question  of  justice 
and  humanity . But  you  must  remember  that  I wrote  it  especially 
for  the  South.  It  is  strongly  impressed  upon  my  mind  that  there 
are  reflecting  people  at  the  South,  who  might  be  influenced  by  those 
statements,  if  we  could  only  contrive  to  place  them  before  them.  I have 
thought  it  might  perhaps  be  well  to  omit  the  fact  that  it  is  printed 
by  the  Anti-Slavery  Society ; lest  the  word  anti-slavery  should  stop 


LYDIA  MARIA  CHILD  AND  ANTI-SLAVERY  41 

it  in  the  Post  Office.  Please  consult  with  Mr.  Garrison  and  Mr. 
Phillips  about  it.19 

She  wanted  to  send  a copy  of  the  tract  to  every  member  of 
Congress,  every  Governor,  and  every  Southern  newspaper  edi- 
tor. She  desired  that  each  friend  of  the  cause  send  copies  to  in- 
dividuals in  the  South  — this,  too,  to  be  done  quietly.  “My 
plan  is  to  attack  them  with  a ‘troop  of  horse  shod  with  felt.’  ” 
She  would  have  preferred  to  omit  her  name  from  the  publica- 
tion, but  as  she  happened  “to  be  notorious  at  this  time,  it  seems 
to  be  necessary  to  help  its  extension.”  By  June  she  was  writing 
May  about  a new  edition,  to  which  she  wanted  to  add  data 
about  Swedish  emancipation. 

In  September,  Mrs.  Child  wrote  to  Garrison,  who  was  ill 
and  worn  out.  She  told  him  that  he  should  go  away  for  a rest. 
“If  I can  help  in  taking  care  of  the  Liberator,  in  your  absence,” 
she  assured  him,  “I  will  do  it  most  cheerfully.  Mr.  Child  also 
says  he  would  do  anything  to  help,  either  in  the  care  of  the 
paper,  or  the  office,  and  esteem  it  a privilege,  if  it  would  be  any 
relief  to  you.”20 

Shortly  after  the  opening  shots  of  the  war,  she  wrote  to 
Sewall  that  she  was  “afraid  of  politics  in  closing  the  Civil 
War.”  “Civil  War,”  she  declared,  “is  a horrid  thing,  but  since 
it  is  begun,  and  there  has  already  been  so  much  expenditure  of 
money,  blood,  and  suffering,  it  will  be  a dreadful  pity  if  the 
cause  of  all  the  trouble  is  not  removed  in  the  process.”  She  re- 
gretted that  General  Scott  was  a Virginian  by  birth,  for  she 
did  not  trust  “any  southerner’s  profession  of  neutrality.”  As 
for  Mr.  Seward,  “I  will  not  trust  myself,”  she  remarked,  “to 
express  my  feelings  about  him.  I will  only  say  that  no  amount 
of  duplicity  on  his  part  can  possibly  surprise  me  . . . He  gains 
the  ear  of  Mrs.  Lincoln  and  thus  operates  indirectly  ...  If  it 
had  only  pleased  the  Lord  to  remove  him  as  well  as  Douglas.”21 
Her  peculiar  attitude  toward  Lincoln  appears  here  and  there 
in  her  letters.  In  one  to  Mr.  R.  F.  Wallcut  of  April  20,  1862, 
she  stated:  “Well,  it  is  something  to  get  slavery  abolished  in 
ten  miles  square  [the  District  of  Columbia],  after  thirty  years 
of  arguing,  remonstrating,  and  petitioning.  The  effect  it  will 
produce  is  of  more  importance  than  the  act  itself.  I am  inclined 
to  think  that  ‘old  Abe’  means  about  right,  only  he  has  a hide- 


42 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

bound  soul.”  In  another  letter  to  Wallcut  on  September  7 she 
wrote  in  a little  note  in  the  margin:  “I  wish  the  Rebels  might 
catch  ‘old  Abe/  Don’t  you  tell”22 

She  dreaded  the  Democratic  Party  more  than  the  rebels  “be- 
cause insidious  enemies  are  more  dangerous  than  open  ones.” 
Further,  she  had  seen  letters  from  England  stating  that 
Mason  and  Slidell  were  offering  to  abolish  slavery  as  the 
price  of  a league  with  England  and  France.  She  thought  Se- 
ward presented  a “remarkably  foolish  appearance,”  and  that 
Lincoln  seemed  to  be  saying  that  if  the  rebels  “continued  to 
resist,  the  United  States  Government  must  resort  to  eman- 
cipation.”23 Again,  when  Mrs.  Shaw  wrote  asking  Mrs.  Child 
what  she  thought  of  Lincoln,  she  replied,  on  May  18,  1862, 
that  he  had  done  better  than  she  expected,  and  had  turned 
out  to  be  “a  better  President  than  we  deserve,”  but  she  sup- 
posed his  soul  to  be  a little  hide-bound,  since  he  was  going 
to  interfere  with  General  Hunter  just  as  he  had  done  with 
Fremont.24  It  was  not  till  after  the  election  of  1864,  when  her 
feelings  toward  Lincoln  had  warmed  considerably,  that  she 
could  write  to  Godwin:  “I  become  more  and  more  radical.  I 
rejoice  in  having  a rail-splitter  for  President  and  a tailor  for 
Vice-President.  I wish  a shoe-black  could  be  found  worthy 
to  be  appointed  Secretary  of  State;  and  I should  be  all  the 
more  pleased  if  he  were  a black  shoe-black.”25 

In  every  way  possible  Mrs.  Child  agitated  for  the  aid  of 
the  “contrabands,”  or  freed  slaves.  To  Francis  Shaw  and  his 
wife  she  poured  out  her  anxieties,  writing  him  on  January  28,  1862  : 

I enclose  $20,  which  I wish  you  to  use  for  the  “contrabands,”  in 
any  way  you  think  best . . . My  interest  in  the  “contrabands,”  every- 
where, is  exceedingly  great ; and  at  this  crisis,  I feel  that  every  one 
ought  to  do  their  utmost.  I still  have  $40  left  of  a fund  I have  set 
apart  for  the  “contrabands.”  I keep  it  for  future  contingencies ; but 
if  you  think  it  is  more  needed  now,  say  the  word  and  you  shall 
have  it. 

Then  she  told  him  of  the  plans  she  had  worked  out  for  making 
the  ex-slaves  good  members  of  society: 

The  “contrabands”  ought  to  be  employed  on  such  terms  that  the 


LYDIA  MARIA  CHILD  AND  ANTI-SLAVERY 


43 


more  they  do  the  more  money  they  get.  I wish  white  people  could 
get  rid  of  the  idea  that  they  must  manage  for  them.  I think  it  is  a 
bad  system  at  Fortress  Monroe  to  keep  back  so  large  a proportion 
of  their  wages  to  support  the  sick  and  the  aged.  White  laborers 
would  not  work  with  much  heart  under  such  circumstances.  They 
ought  to  pay  them  wages  in  proportion  to  their  work,  and  let  them 
form  Relief  Societies  among  themselves,  so  that  they  might  feel 
that  they  did  the  benevolent  work  themselves.  I think  a great  deal 
depends  upon  the  application  of  proper  stimulus  to  their  industry  . . . 

Where  we  are  drifting  I cannot  see;  but  we  are  drifting  some- 
where; and  our  fate,  whatever  it  may  be,  is  bound  up  with  these 
same  despised  “contrabands.”  Oh,  if  the  country  could  be  saved, 
all  free,  by  jumping  into  a great  gulf,  as  Quintus  Curtius  did,  how 
I would  hurry  to  the  sacrifice ! 

To  her  constant  concern  for  the  freed  slaves  she  added  (May 
18,  1862)  an  interest  in  the  fate  of  the  “poor  whites.” 

I am  greatly  interested  in  the  Educational  Commission  for  the 
“contrabands,”  which  they  have  started  in  Boston.  I shall  do  all 
I can  for  it.  It  is  refreshing  to  find  some  green  spots  in  our  blood- 
red  landscape.  Oh,  how  heart-sick  I am  of  the  war ! Almost  every 
day  my  heart  receives  some  stab,  which  makes  it  writhe  with  an- 
guish. It  is  not  merely  our  soldiers  that  excite  my  pity.  I cannot 
help  compassionating  the  “poor  whites”  of  the  South,  led  into 
wickedness  and  danger  by  men  who  care  no  more  for  their  souls  or 
bodies  than  they  would  for  so  many  blind  dogs.  I was  glad  to  see 
that  several  hundreds  of  them  deserted  from  Georgia  to  the  U.  S. 
giving  as  a reason  that  they  were  “tired  of  fighting  the  rich  men's 
war.”  Through  this  terrible  process,  they  will  come  up  to  the  light, 
as  well  as  the  negroes,  and  they  have  been  scarcely  less  wronged. 
I was  powerfully  drawn  to  be  a teacher  among  the  “contrabands,” 
but  my  good  David  would  get  sick  if  he  went  with  me,  or  if  he 
stayed  at  home  alone.  The  nearest  duty  must  not  be  neglected. 

The  problems  of  the  coming  post-war  period  greatly  wor- 
ried her.  She  wrote  Mrs.  Shaw  in  the  same  letter: 

The  work  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Lord,  and  he  is  doing  it  in  a most 
wonderful  manner.  I don’t  see  how  Mrs.  Chapman  can  help  believ- 
ing in  the  superintendence  of  God.  I think  the  progress  of  events 
connected  with  the  war  is  enough  to  make  anybody  religious.  I 
confess  they  have  impressed  my  mind  very  solemnly.  That  the 
Rebels  will  be  conquered  seems  almost  certain ; but  the  worst  part 
of  the  trouble  is  what  to  do  with  them  after  they  are  conquered.  I 
do  hope  they  are  not  going  to  be  allowed  to  return  directly  to  Con- 


44 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

gress,  and  vote  on  questions  connected  with  slavery  and  the  rebel- 
lion. It  is  refreshing  to  see  Congress  free  from  slaveholding  domina- 
tion, at  last.  Mr.  Gorham  of  Boston,  more  than  thirty  years  ago, 
complained  to  Mr.  Child  that  all  Northern  men  in  Congress  were 
obliged  to  work  in  fetters  . . 26 

As  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Women’s  Fairs 
and  Receptions,  she  was  interested  in  the  continuance  of 
these  gatherings.  She  offered  practical  suggestions  for  plan- 
ning such  affairs  privately  and  on  a small  scale.  However,  she 
doubted  the  necessity  of  maintaining  the  Standard  if  it  could 
not  support  itself.  “The  plain  fact  is,”  she  wrote  Garrison, 
“that  the  war  has  sucked  in  nearly  all  the  anti-slavery  feeling 
of  the  country;  and  the  pecuniary  demands  for  that  are  so  in- 
cessant, and  so  immense,  that  only  a few  crumbs  are  left  to 
nourish  the  old-fashioned  anti-slavery.”27 

Early  in  1863  fire  damaged  the  Child’s  house,  though  the 
main  body  of  it  and  Mrs.  Child’s  precious  keepsakes  were 
saved.  The  feelings  of  her  friends  may  be  seen  in  a letter  from 
Mrs.  Shaw : 

I can  hardly  credit  it ! I try  to  think  of  that  neat,  perfect,  shiny 
little  home  changed  to  what  you  describe ! It  does  seem  hard  it 
should  happen  to  you,  of  all  persons,  and  just  after  you  had  made 
it  all  so  nice — . . . Now  dear  Friend,  you  surely  will  let  us  build  up 
again  for  you.  If  you  won’t  accept  any  money  to  do  it,  you  know 
you  can  mortgage  the  whole  to  Frank  — at  any  rate,  do  treat  us  like 
real  relations .*8 

“Our  dear  boy,”  Mrs.  Shaw  went  on,  “has  gone  with  his  regi- 
ment to  an  Island  off  Georgia  and  my  heart  sinks  when  I 
think  of  it!”  This  was  Colonel  Robert  Gould  Shaw,  Com- 
mander of  the  first  colored  regiment,  who  was  killed  in  the 
attack  on  Fort  Wagner,  South  Carolina,  in  July  of  the  same  year. 

TT  HE  war  over,  Mrs.  Child  turned  to  help  win  the  peace  for 
the  freedman.  She  called  upon  Garrison,  writing  him  on  July 
7,  1865: 

I want  some  help,  which  perhaps  you  can  render  me.  I know 
you  will,  if  you  can.  I am  writing  an  account  of  William  and  Ellen 
Crafts,  and  I cannot  obtain  all  the  information  I wish  . . . 


LYDIA  MARIA  CHILD  AND  ANTI-SLAVERY 


45 


I am  writing  it  for  the  Freedmen’s  Book  which  is  nearly  com- 
pleted. I am  writing  over  nearly  every  prose  article  I extract,  so 
as  to  give  them  as  much  as  possible  in  the  smallest  space,  and  to  give 
it  in  a very  clear  and  simple  form.  I am  a great  lover  of  mental 
order,  and  in  this  case  it  is  peculiarly  necessary  for  the  class  of 
readers  I address.  I am  taking  more  pains  with  it  than  I should  if 
it  were  intended  for  young  princes,  or  sprigs  of  what  men  call  no- 
bility. In  the  first  place,  my  theory  is  that  whatever  is  done  at  all 
ought  to  be  well  done,  and  in  the  next  place,  I have  a more  and  more 
tender  feeling  toward  what  are  called  “the  lower  classes.”  If  I live 
to  be  ninety  years  old  and  go  on  at  this  rate,  I shall  be  the  rabidest 
radical  that  ever  pelted  a throne,  or  upset  an  image. 

How  refreshing  it  is  to  live  in  days,  when  Senators,  and  Gover- 
nors, and  Presidential  Candidates  address  colored  men  as  “Gentle- 
men !”  Thank  God  we  live  to  see  it ! I want  to  live  a while  to  see 
the  glorious  work  go  on.  Don’t  you?29 

The  Freedmen’s  Book,  which  appeared  in  1865,  was  a collec- 
tion of  articles,  some  retold,  by  various  friends  of  the  Negro 
(Garrison,  Mrs.  Stowe,  L.  Sigourney,  and  Mrs.  Child  herself), 
some  by  Negroes  themselves  (Frances  Harper,  F.  Douglass, 
Phyllis  Wheatley,  Harriet  Jacob,  and  Charlotte  Forten).  Just 
before  its  publication,  she  wrote  to  Mrs.  Sewall  that  she  hoped 
it  would  help  the  freedmen,  the  whites,  and  the  cause  of  woman 
suffrage.  She  had  tried  in  every  way  to  save  money  to  pay  for 
the  edition,  which  cost  $1,200.  She  had  gotten  together  only 
$600,  but  had  made  arrangements  with  Ticknor  and  Fields  on 
the  basis  of  time  payments.30  In  an  introduction  she  told  the 
freedmen  that  she  had  prepared  her  book  expressly  for  them, 
with  the  hope  that  those  who  could  read  would  read  it  aloud 
to  others.  She  took  nothing  for  her  services,  and  the  book  was 
to  be  sold  to  them  at  the  cost  of  the  paper,  printing,  and  bind- 
ing. The  returns  would  be  immediately  invested  in  other  vol- 
umes to  be  sent  to  freedmen.  If  any  money  remained  after  the 
book  ceased  to  sell,  it  would  go  to  the  Freedmen’s  Aid  Asso- 
ciation, for  schools  for  freed  slaves  and  their  children. 

The  book  that  was  to  be  Mrs.  Child’s  last  work  in  behalf  of 
the  Negro  was  an  indirect  plea;  it  took  the  form  of  a novel,  A 
Romance  of  the  Republic,  1867.  Here  she  let  her  imagination  run 
wild.  It  is  a story  of  slavery  days,  in  which  the  heroines  are 
two  lovely  mixed-blooded  New  Orleans  girls,  who  for  442 
pages  go  through  all  the  vicissitudes  Mrs.  Child’s  mind  was 


46 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

capable  of  devising.  The  plot  is  filled  with  melodrama  — ship- 
wreck, substituted  babies,  long-lost  sisters,  disclosed  identities, 
wicked  villains,  and  noble  heroes  ad  infinitum.  Writing  Tilton 
on  October  27,  1867,  about  a review  of  her  novel  which  had 
appeared  in  the  Independent,  she  said  she  never  sought  notice, 
but  that  if  it  came  in  a friendly,  spontaneous  way  she  was  thank- 
ful. Apparently  to  quell  some  doubts  about  the  credibility  of 
the  “Methuselah”  parrot  which  appears  in  the  book,  she  told 
him  that  parrots  sometimes  live  to  be  a hundred  years  old,  and 
that  she  had  found  the  case  of  a parrot  that  “did  utter  a scream 
of  joy  and  fall  dead”  on  hearing  Spanish  spoken  after  being 
sold  to  an  English  sea  captain.  As  for  the  character  of  Alfred 
King,  she  had  made  his  “broadcloth  sit  stiffly  upon  him  because 
he  was  a Bostonian,  in  contrast  to  the  impulsive  and  slippery 
South  Carolinian.”31 

Though  she  was  isolated  at  Wayland,  Mrs.  Child’s  interest 
in  public  affairs  never  flagged.  Expressing  her  political  senti- 
ments freely,  she  wrote  Mrs.  Shaw  on  April  2,  1866,  that  “the 
virus  of  the  Democratic  Party  does  so  disease  the  blood  of  man, 
that  seven  times  washing  in  Jordan  cannot  cleanse  him.”  React- 
ing to  a compliment  from  Mrs.  Shaw’s  son-in-law,  George  Wil- 
liam Curtis,  she  assured  her  friend  that  if  he  wished  to  keep  the 
illusion  of  her  looking  “sweet  and  lovely,” 

he  had  better  never  mention  in  my  presence  our  fuddled  President 
or  the  “narcotic  maudlinism”  of  his  snaky  Secretary  of  State. 
Heavens ! What  a couple  to  steer  our  Ship  of  State  through  the 
dangerous  breakers  that  surround  her ! It  makes  me  groan  to  think 
that  I cannot  convince  people  how  bad  and  how  dangerous  a man 
William  H.  Seward  is.  Sometimes,  when  I get  thinking  about  him, 
the  Charlotte  Corday  spirit  rises  within  me,  and  I look  anything  but 
“sweet  and  lovely”.  . . 

“Magnanimity”  toward  fallen  foes  is  a very  good  thing;  but  I 
tell  you  there  is  a great  deal  of  a spurious  kind  in  circulation,  and 
toward  foes  who  are  not  fallen.  The  Republic  was  never  in  so  great 
danger  as  it  now  is.  France  ready  with  her  armies  on  our  Mexican 
border,  the  Fenians  saying  to  the  ex-slaveholders,  “Make  a war 
upon  England  for  ns,  and  we  will  help  you  to  exterminate  the  nig- 
gers and  put  down  the  Yankees.  Here  we  are,  organized  in  every 
state  and  ready  for  your  service.”  The  Rebels,  emboldened  by 
Johnson  and  Seward,  and  provided  with  the  arms  and  ammunition, 
which  Grant  and  Sherman  allowed  them  to  carry  to  their  homes, 


LYDIA  MARIA  CHILD  AND  ANTI-SLAVERY 


47 


are  already  talking  of  invading  the  North.  And  ive,  good  easy  souls, 
are  feeding  the  South  with  sugar-plums,  just  as  we  did  when  the 
first  War  of  Rebellion  was  close  upon  us  \*2 

A steady  flow  of  letters  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Samuel  B.  Sewall 
and  to  other  friends  continued  during  the  last  fifteen  years  of 
Mrs.  Child's  life.  She  thought  the  “nation  might  fare  worse  than 
in  the  hands  of  General  Grant,”  though  she  distrusted  his  terms 
to  Lee  and  felt  that  he  had  not  expressed  sympathy  for  the  col- 
ored people.  She  was  afraid  he  was  an  “habitual  tippler,”  and 
“we  have  had  enough  of  that  sort  of  thing  in  the  White  House”  — 
but  if  they  could  not  have  Sumner,  “take  him”  She  was  glad 
that  “Andy  Johnson”  was  impeached  at  last,  though  she  wished 
“the  terms  of  the  indictment  had  expressed  something  about 
the  slaughters  and  discouragements  of  the  freed  people,  caused 
by  his  nefarious  policy.”  She  mourned  unceasingly  “over  the 
injustice  and  impolicy  of  Congress,  in  not  taking  away  large 
tracts  of  land  from  rich  rebels  and  selling  them  cheaply  in  small 
portions  to  the  freedmen  and  the  poor  whites.”  The  “wicked- 
ness of  Congress”  in  granting  immense  tracts  of  the  public 
lands  to  monopolists  made  her  indignant.  She  wanted  to  whip 
them  out.  “We  will,”  she  added,  “when  the  women  get  the 
control  of  affairs.”33 

She  followed  the  Franco-Prussian  War  closely,  finding  the 
Prussians  “very  forbearing.”  “Wendell  Phillips  jeers  at  me,” 
she  wrote  Mrs.  Sewall,  “for  being  a partisan  of  the  Germans.  I 
certainly  have  a very  great  liking  for  German  literature,  art, 
and  character.”34  She  also  “respected”  the  Czar  for  emancipat- 
ing the  serfs,  and  felt  grateful  to  Russia  for  her  friendliness  to 
the  North  during  the  Civil  War. 

David  Lee  Child,  like  his  wife,  never  lost  interest  in  reform. 
As  late  as  May,  1874,  he  was  trying  to  enlist  the  aid  of  Garrison 
on  some  “controversial  issue.”  Garrison,  who  was  to  survive 
him  by  five  years,  wrote  with  affection: 

Having  labored  with  you  and  your  dear  and  noble  wife,  for  so 
many  years,  to  make  this  world  better  than  we  found  it  — and  I 
trust  not  labored  in  vain  — I hope  to  join  you  in  another  sphere, 
animated  by  a similar  spirit,  and  consecrating  the  same  faculties 
and  powers  to  “the  general  welfare”  under  better  conditions  and 
with  constant  enlargement ; only  may  “the  sum  of  all  villainy”  have 


48 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

no  possible  foothold  in  that  untried  sphere ! Should  we  find  it  there, 
however,  no  matter  under  what  sanctions  or  in  what  strength, 
here  is  my  pledge  of  hand  and  heart  to  join  you  as  in  “auld  lang 
syne,”  in  a war  of  extermination  !33 

Child  died  on  September  18,  1874.  Maria  sorted  his  papers 
and  possessions,  and  distributed  many  of  them  among  his  old 
friends,  including  of  course  Garrison.  The  latter,  now  nearly 
seventy,  had  been  ill;  yet  he  would  have  made  the  effort  to  go 
to  the  funeral.  Mrs.  Child  perhaps  sensed  this  and  let  him 
know  that  no  notices  to  friends  were  sent.  After  paying  tribute 
to  her  husband,  Garrison  wrote  her : 

I cannot  refrain  from  renewing  the  expression  of  my  earliest 
appreciation  of  your  character,  genius,  literary  productions,  and 
self-denying  and  untiring  labors  in  the  cause  of  universal  emanci- 
pation, of  suffering  humanity  in  its  varied  aspects,  or  religious 
freedom  of  inquiry  and  dissent  as  against  all  sacerdotal  assump- 
tions, of  equal  rights  and  immunities  without  regard  to  sex,  of  re- 
form and  progress  in  their  widest  scope.  Few  have  written  so  well 
and  instructively  as  yourself.  Multitudes  on  both  sides  of  the  At- 
lantic have  read  your  writings  with  profit  and  delight,  and  yours 
has  been  a conspicuous  part  in  popular  education.  I honor  and 
admire  you  among  the  very  first  of  your  sex  in  any  age  or  country.36 

Mrs.  Child  had  been  dreading  the  parting  with  her  husband, 
whose  decline  she  had  watched  for  some  time  with  heart-ache. 
When  the  separation  came,  she  did  not  know  where  to  go.  For 
a while  she  visited  friends,  but  returned  home  in  1875  with  Mrs. 
Pickering,  who  remained  her  companion  until  her  death  on 
October  20,  1880.  Almost  to  the  last  day  of  her  life  she  carried 
on  her  correspondence.  She  considered  herself  blessed  with 
many  intimate  friends,  “all  sifted  out  from  the  world  in  the 
Anti-Slavery  sieve.”37 


Notes 

1.  The  Progress  of  Religious  Ideas,  New  York  1855,  vii. 

2.  Letters  of  Lydia  Maria  Child,  Boston  1883,  69,  74,  71-2. 

3.  Robie-Sewall  Collection,  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  (December 

18,  1859). 


LYDIA  MARIA  CHILD  AND  ANTI-SLAVERY  49 

4.  Bryant-Godwin  Collection,  New  York  Public  Library  (L.  M.  C.  to 
Godwin,  November  18,  1856). 

5.  Letters  of  Lydia  Maria  Child,  80. 

6.  MSS.  Letters,  New  York  Historical  Society. 

7.  Robie-Sewall  Collection  (December  25,  1859). 

8.  Correspondence  between  Lydia  Maria  Child  and  Gov.  Wise  and  Mrs.  Mason, 
of  Virginia,  Boston  i860,  3. 

9.  Ibid.,  4.  10.  Ibid.,  6,  12. 

11.  Ibid,  15.  A footnote  in  Oswald  Garrison  Villard’s  John  Brown,  New 
York  1943,  479-80,  quotes  a letter  written  by  George  H.  Hoyt,  John  Brown’s 
lawyer,  to  J.  W.  Le  Barnes : “Do  not  allow  Mrs.  Child  to  visit  Brown  . . . He  don’t 
want  women  there  to  unman  his  heroic  determination  to  maintain  a firm  and 
consistent  composure.  Keep  Mrs.  Child  away  at  all  hazards.  Brown  and  asso- 
ciates will  certainly  be  lynched  if  she  goes  there.” 

12.  Correspondence  between  Lydia  Maria  Child  and  Gov.  Wise  and  Mrs. 
Mason,  of  Virginia,  16-18. 

13.  Lydia  Maria  Child  MSS.,  1821-1873,  Boston  Public  Library,  79. 

14.  Ibid.,  82.  15.  Ibid.,  86. 

16.  Ibid.,  89,  91.  17.  Ibid.,  92-3. 

18.  Robie-Sewall  Collection  (September  27,  i860);  MSS.  Letters,  New 
York  Historical  Society  (to  “Mr.  Earle  Boston,”  April  11,  1877). 

19.  Anti-Slavery  Letters  Written  to  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  Boston 
Public  Library,  XXX,  24. 

20.  Ibid.,  XXX,  124. 

21.  Robie-Sewall  Collection  (June  16,  1861). 

22.  Anti-Slavery  Letters  Written  to  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  B.  P.  L., 
XXXI,  16,  146. 

23.  Horace  Greeley  Papers,  New  York  Public  Library  (L.  M.  C.  to 
Horace  Greeley,  March  9,  1862). 

24.  Shaw  Family  Correspondence,  New  York  Public  Library. 

25.  Bryant-Godwin  Collection  (L.  M.  C.  to  Godwin,  December  13,  1864). 

26.  Shaw  Family  Correspondence  (January  28,  1S62;  May  18,  1862). 

27.  Anti-Slavery  Letters  Written  to  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  B.  P.  L., 

XXXII,  95. 

28.  Child  MSS.,  18. 

29.  Anti-Slavery  Letters  Written  to  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  B.  P.  L., 
XXXIV,  67. 

30.  Robie-Sewall  Collection  (October  9,  1865). 

31.  MSS.  Letters,  New  York  Historical  Society. 

32.  Shaw  Family  Correspondence. 

33.  Robie-Sewall  Collection  (March  21,  1868;  February  3,  1871). 

34.  Ibid.,  ([September  ?,  1871?];  December  20,  1871). 

35.  Anti-Slavery  Letters  Written  by  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  B.  P.  L., 
VIII,  46. 

36.  Ibid.,  VIII,  64.  Marked  “copy.” 

37.  Robie-Sewall  Collection  (January  10,  1875). 


The  Wiggin  Collection  of  Fore-Edge  Paintings 

By  MURIEL  C.  FIGENBAUM 

IT  was  in  1945  that  Albert  H.  Wiggin  began  to  form  the 
fine  collection  of  fore-edge  paintings  that  upon  his  death 
in  May  1951  came  to  the  Boston  Public  Library.  One  of  the 
largest  collections  in  this  country,  it  is  surpassed  in  size  only 
by  the  Estelle  Doheny  Collection  at  St.  John’s  Seminary, 
Camarillo,  California.  The  Wiggin  Collection  contains  258 
volumes,  some  of  which  are  the  unusual  double  fore-edge 
paintings,  and  is,  to  the  best  of  our  knowledge,  the  largest  in  a 
public  institution. 

The  painting  done  on  the  fore-edge  of  a book,  and  known  as 
a fore-edge  painting,  is  visible  only  when  the  pages  are  care- 
fully fanned,  in  the  same  manner  as  when  the  artist  was  paint- 
ing the  picture.  When  the  book  is  closed,  the  painting  disappears 
under  the  gold  leaf  of  the  edge.  In  time  it  was  realized  that 
after  one  painting  was  finished  it  was  possible  to  paint  another, 
fanning  the  book  in  the  opposite  direction.  These  are  known 
as  double  fore-edge  paintings.  The  work  itself  is  done  in  water 
color,  very  drily. 

Little  is  found  in  writing  about  fore-edge  painting  and  its 
history.  However,  as  the  technique  was  passed  on  by  word  of 
mouth,  it  is  by  no  means  a lost  art.  Fore-edge  painting  is  being 
done  today  by  Frederick  R.  Cross.  An  example  of  his  work  is 
dated  1946.  Carl  F.  Weber’s  A Thousand  and  One  Fore-edge 
Paintings , published  by  the  Colby  College  Press  in  1949,  seems 
to  be  the  first  book  devoted  to  the  subject.  Cyril  Davenport 
has  attributed  its  invention  to  Samuel  Mearne,  the  royal  book- 
binder to  Charles  II.  Whether  or  not  Mearne  did  the  paintings 
himself  or  employed  artists  to  do  them,  is  still  a matter  of 
speculation.  The  shift  to  landscape  from  the  scrolls  and  herald- 
ry of  this  early  period  came  about  a hundred  years  later,  and 
was  developed  for  the  most  part  by  Edwards  of  Halifax.  The  ques- 
tion of  just  who  was  “Edwards  of  Halifax’’  is  ably  discussed  by 
Mr.  Weber.  He  identifies  the  various  members  of  the  Edwards 
family,  all  of  whom  were  interested  in  the  art  of  the  book.  Wil- 


50 


COLLECTION  OF  FORE-EDGE  PAINTINGS 


5i 


liam  Edwards  was  a bookseller,  bookbinder,  and  publisher  in 
Halifax,  who  sent  his  sons,  James  and  John,  to  London  where 
he  settled  them  with  a fashionable  bookshop. 

It  was  William  Edwards  who  revived  and  developed  the  art 
of  fore-edge  painting  perhaps  as  early  as  1755,  and  invented 
two  special  types  of  binding.  One  is  known  as  the  Etruscan 
binding  in  which  the  calfskin  of  the  binding  has  been  colored 
by  treating  with  chemicals.  The  center  panel  of  the  book  is 
usually  decorated  this  way,  and  gives  the  effect  of  a growing 
tree.  Classical  motifs  then  surround  this  panel  in  gold  or  blind 
stamp.  There  are  interesting  examples  of  this  type  of  binding 
coupled  with  fine  fore-edge  paintings,  also  attributed  to  Ed- 
wards of  Halifax,  in  the  Wiggin  Collection.  Among  them  is 
David  Robertson’s  A Tour  through  the  Isle  of  Man,  London, 
1794,  which  has  the  typical  “tree  calf”  inlay  in  the  back  and 
front  covers.  A finely  executed  fore-edge  painting  of  a rural 
scene  in  the  neighborhood  of  Milton  Constable,  Norfolk,  is 
under  the  gilt.  Two  volumes  of  Hector  MacNeill’s  Poetical 
Works,  London,  1801,  are  also  bound  in  this  manner,  with  fore- 
edge  paintings  on  each  volume,  a view  of  Edinburgh  Castle  and  a 
landscape  with  Stirling  Castle.  The  other  style  of  binding  which 
Edwards  developed  is  a cream-colored  vellum,  often  decorated 
with  a painting.  Either  William  Edwards  or  his  son  James  in- 
vented a way  of  rendering  the  vellum  transparent,  and  the 
paintings  were  done  under  the  vellum,  enabling  the  colors  to 
last  indefinitely.  Most  of  the  paintings  are  done  in  black  or 
sepia,  such  as  the  Library’s  copy  of  Thomas  Gray’s  Poems, 
London,  1785.  On  the  front  cover  the  Muse  of  Poetry  is  strew- 
ing Gray’s  tomb  with  flowers,  and  on  the  back  there  is  a scene 
described  in  his  poem  “The  Bard,”  in  which  the  poet  stands  on 
a cliff  above  the  water  playing  a harp.  The  painting  under  the 
fore-edge  depicts  a bridge  across  a river  with  the  tops  of  the 
buildings  visible  in  the  distance  and  with  mountains  in  the 
background.  Apparently  the  artist  was  inspired  by  the  opening 
lines  of  Gray’s  “Ode  on  a Distant  Prospect  of  Eton  College.” 

Other  examples  of  this  type  of  Edwards  binding  with  fore- 
edge  paintings  are  Specimens  of  the  Early  English  Poets,  London, 
1790,  with  a painting  of  the  house  of  Sir  Thomas  Claverings, 
Oxwell  Park,  Northumberland,  whose  name  appears  in  ink  on 


52 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

the  flyleaf  of  the  volume;  Poems  and  Essays  by  Jane  Bowdler, 
Bath,  1788-87,  with  a painting  of  a fort  on  a river  bank  with  a 
sailing  vessel  in  the  foreground;  and  Poems  by  E.  Cartwright, 
London,  1786.  The  binding  of  this  last  book  is  contemporary 
white  vellum  with  paintings  in  sepia  under  the  covers  of  the 
binding.  An  outstanding  volume  is  James  Thomson’s  The  Sea- 
sons, London,  1788.  Here  instead  of  the  usual  monochrome  are 
designs  in  full  color.  The  central  design  in  the  front  cover  is  a 
circular  medallion  of  green  background  with  a figure  of  a man 
offering  grapes  to  a child.  Red  and  black  concentric  circles  sur- 
round the  design.  Etruscan  borders  of  gilt  and  green  are  on 
both  covers,  and  within  the  borders  there  is  a floral  design  with 
ribbons  and  urns.  On  the  back  cover,  in  color,  is  the  reclining 
figure  of  a shepherd  with  flute  and  a winged  cupid  with  pipes. 
The  fore-edge  painting  depicts  a lake  with  a small  island  in  the 
center,  and  at  the  right  is  a mansion  showing  its  reflection  in 
the  water.  This  volume  is  considered  to  be  one  of  the  finest  ex- 
amples of  the  work  of  Edwards  of  Halifax. 

Among  the  examples  of  the  double  fore-edge  painting  in  the 
Wiggin  Collection  are  two  volumes  of  Roderick  by  Robert 
Southey,  London,  1818.  Volume  I bears  a painting  of  the  “Gate 
House,  Highgate,”  showing  a street  and  houses,  and,  reversing 
the  fanning  of  the  pages,  “The  Tower  of  London,”  with  ships 
at  anchor  in  the  Thames  River.  Volume  II  offers  “The  Found- 
ling Hospital”  with  street  and  carriage  in  the  foreground,  and 
“London  from  Highgate,”  with  houses  and  field  in  the  fore- 
ground. Also  bearing  a double  fore-edge  painting  is  The  Life  of 
the  Right  Reverend  Beilby  Portens,  D.  D.  by  Robert  Hodgson, 
London,  1811.  One  side  shows  a view  of  St.  Paul’s  Cathedral 
from  the  Thames  and  the  other  a view  of  Chester  Bridge.  The 
volume  is  from  the  library  of  Shute  Barrington,  Bishop  of  Dur- 
ham, to  whom,  in  conjunction  with  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  the 
book  is  dedicated.  An  unusual  example  is  seen  in  the  two  vol- 
umes of  Memoirs  of  the  Court  of  King  James  the  First  by  Lucy 
Aikin,  London,  1822.  Each  volume  has  a double  fore-edge  paint- 
ing, and  three  of  the  paintings  are  divided  into  two,  making  in 
all  seven  subjects.  Volume  I contains  a portrait  of  James  I and 
a view  of  Whitehall  from  the  river,  and,  from  the  back,  a por- 
trait of  Francis  Bacon  and  a view  of  York  Gate;  volume  II  de- 


53 


Fore-Edge  Paintings  on  William  Coivpc/s  Poems,  Published  in  London  in  1808 


COLLECTION  OF  FORE-EDGE  PAINTINGS  55 

picts  a portrait  of  William  Shakespeare  and  a view  of  the  Globe 
Theater,  and,  from  the  back,  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims. 

Of  special  interest  are  the  twelve  fore-edge  paintings  after 
Wheatley’s  Cries  of  London.  The  Library  possesses  a superb 
complete  set  of  the  thirteen  stipple  engravings  done  after 
Wheatley,  and  also  a unique  set  of  porcelain  figurines  by  Gwen- 
dolyn Parnell  of  the  same  subjects;  thus  the  addition  of  these 
fore-edge  paintings  to  the  Wiggin  Collection  enlarges  a fascin- 
ating subject.  The  paintings  are  in  the  two  volumes  of  William 
Cowper’s  Poems,  London,  1820,  each  bearing  a double  fore-edge 
painting,  and  each  painting  divided  into  three  finely  executed 
subjects. 

There  is  an  earlier  edition  of  Cowper’s  Poems,  published  in 
London  in  1808,  in  two  volumes,  bound  in  dark  blue  morocco 
with  gilt  by  Bartholomew  Frye  of  Halifax.  Frye  was  one  of  the 
employees  of  William  Edwards,  and  went  into  business  for  him- 
self after  the  latter’s  death.  Whether  or  not  he  himself  did  the 
fore-edge  paintings  on  his  books  is  not  known,  but  their  superi- 
ority is  easily  recognized.  One  of  the  paintings  depicts  a harvest 
landscape,  and  the  other  a rustic  river  scene. 

The  finest  book  in  the  collection,  not  only  because  of  the 
painting,  but  for  the  binding  and  the  provenance,  is  the  Diction- 
naire  Grec-Frangais,  Paris,  1817.  It  is  bound  in  original  red  straight- 
grained morocco,  richly  gilt  and  blind-tooled.  The  sides  are 
decorated  with  a broad  gold  border  of  flowers  and  leaves.  Un- 
der the  gilt  of  the  fore-edges  is  a charming  mythological  paint- 
ing, portraying  a nude  Diana,  sitting  with  a handmaid  by  a 
lake,  with  two  dogs  and  a sheaf  of  arrows,  her  bow  and  some 
dead  game.  Diana  is  resting  against  blue  drapery.  The  back- 
ground shows  trees,  rushes,  and  sky.  The  binding  is  signed  in 
gold  on  the  spine  by  the  binder,  R.  P.  Ginain.  The  volume 
originally  belonged  to  the  Marquis  of  Douglas  and  Clydesdale, 
whose  monogram  “D  & C”  appears  on  the  front  cover.  His 
signature  appears  on  the  first  blank  flyleaf.  The  book  subse- 
quently belonged  to  Napoleon  III  and  contains  his  book-label, 
an  “N”  surmounted  by  a crown  printed  in  gold.  Evidently  this 
was  one  of  the  more  important  books  in  the  Emperor’s  library, 
as  the  labels  he  used  in  the  less  important  books  were  printed 
either  in  silver  or  black. 


56 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 


Another  item  of  interest  is  The  Plays  of  William  Shakespeare, 
London,  1823.  An  unusual  fore-edge  painting  embellishes  the 
volume,  depicting  an  actor  in  costume,  with  sword  and  shield 
in  the  part  of  Falstaff.  The  thickness  of  the  book,  about  two 
inches,  allowed  the  artist  to  paint  the  picture  with  the  figure 
of  the  actor  standing  parallel  with  the  fore-edge,  instead  of  at 
right  angles  to  it.  It  is  most  unusual  to  find  a painting  placed 
vertically,  the  great  majority  being  in  a horizontal  position. 
The  human  figure  is  by  no  means  a common  subject  in  fore- 
edge  painting.  When  it  does  occur,  it  is  almost  invariably  in 
the  form  of  a small  vignette,  a bust,  or  as  a very  small  figure 
in  a landscape.  The  figure  in  this  painting  is  approximately 
seven  inches  in  height. 

The  collection  also  includes  the  three  volumes  of  The  Bib- 
liographical Decameron  by  T.  F.  Dibdin,  London,  1817,  which 
contains  several  hundred  beautiful  woodcuts  and  engravings 
of  illuminations,  portraits,  etc.,  and  a fore-edge  painting  on 
each  volume.  These  were  done  by  a Miss  Daniels  of  Ipswich 
for  Admiral  Page  and  his  wife  and  represent  on  Volume  I,  a 
view  of  LowestofFe,  Suffolk;  on  Volume  II,  a view  of  Harwich, 
Essex;  and  on  Volume  III,  a view  of  Oxford  Castle,  Suffolk. 

One  of  the  more  recent  fore-edge  artists  was  Miss  C.  B. 
Currie,  whose  books  are  signed  and  numbered,  but  not  dated. 
We  do  know,  however,  that  she  was  active  at  least  as  late  as 
1928.  She  was  employed  by  Riviere  and  Son,  London  binders, 
and  began  her  career  as  painter  of  miniatures  on  ivory,  which 
were  sometimes  inserted  in  bindings.  Many  of  her  fore-edge 
paintings  were  on  old  books  that  were  being  rebound,  and  for 
a time  they  were  not  always  in  keeping  with  the  subject  of  the 
book.  A number  of  examples  of  her  books  are  in  the  Wiggin 
Collection,  one  of  which  is  A History  of  Nezv  York  by  Washing- 
ton Irving,  published  in  London  in  1821  under  the  pseudonym 
of  Diedrich  Knickerbocker. 

Among  other  interesting  items  is  an  old  manuscript  recipe 
book,  decorated  with  a fore-edge  painting,  but  containing  hand- 
written notes.  Robert  Southey’s  The  Curse  of  Kehama,  London, 
1812,  is  embellished  with  a scene  of  India  along  the  shore  of  a 
river  with  a Hindu  Temple  upon  a high  rock,  palms  in  the  dis- 
tance, and  a boat  at  anchor  off  shore. 


Notes  on  Rare  Books  and  Manuscripts 


An  Important  Gift  of  Manuscripts 

IT  is  pleasant  to  announce  here  the  recent  receipt  of  an  anony- 
mous gift  of  a distinguished  group  of  manuscripts  and  documents. 
About  one-third  of  the  group  are  Americana.  The  most  valu- 
able among  them  is  a long  autograph  letter  by  George  Washington, 
dated  from  headquarters  in  Cambridge  on  April  4,  1776,  giving 
instructions  to  Major-General  Artemus  Ward  for  the  military  ad- 
ministration of  “the  Province  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay,”  particu- 
larly in  relation  to  the  defense  of  Boston.  The  letter,  nearly  four 
folio  pages  long,  has  been  published  (in  the  Centennial  Volume  of 
the  Collections  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society , 1878,  pp.  4-8)  ; 
nevertheless,  it  may  be  of  interest  to  summarize  a few  of  its  points. 
All  the  lines  on  Boston  Neck,  the  Commander-in-Chief  wrote,  were 
to  be  demolished,  as  they  were  no  security  to  the  town ; proper 
signals  for  alarming  the  country  upon  the  appearance  of  a fleet 
were  to  be  agreed  upon  without  delay ; the  powder  magazine  in 
Boston  was  to  be  closely  guarded;  all  captures  made  by  the  Con- 
tinental armed  vessels  were  to  be  immediately  reported  to  the 
Court  of  Admiralty  of  the  district;  the  barracks  were  to  be  pre- 
served ; the  wheat  left  by  the  King's  forces  was  to  be  sold  or  con- 
verted into  flour  for  the  Army,  and  so  on.  General  Washington  es- 
pecially insisted  upon  keeping  strong  discipline  among  both  officers 
and  soldiers.  “All  attempts  to  mutiny,  or  disobedience  of  orders,” 
he  wrote,  “should  be  severely  punished.” 

Another  fine  item  is  a letter  by  Thomas  Jefferson,  written  from 
Paris  on  September  9,  1788,  to  “Mr.  Rutledge,”  probably  William 
Rutledge,  who  at  that  time  was  visiting  in  Europe.  This,  too,  has 
been  published  (in  The  Writings  of  Thomas  Jefferson , edited  by 
H.  A.  Washington,  1853,  vol.  II,  pp.  474-75).  The  larger  part  of 
the  letter  is  a refutation  of  Buffon’s  description  of  the  moose  as 
being  identical  with  the  Lapland  reindeer.  Jefferson  went  to  great 
trouble  and  expense  to  secure  the  skin  and  skeleton  of  the  animal. 
He  asked  General  Sullivan  to  have  one  killed  for  him.  “M.  de  Buf- 
fon,”  he  wrote,  “describes  the  Renne  to  be  about  three  feet  high,  and 
truly  the  Moose  you  saw  there  was  seven  feet  high,  and  there  are 
some  of  them  ten  feet  high.”  And  further  on:  “The  animal  whose 


57 


58  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

enormous  bones  are  found  on  the  Ohio,  is  supposed  by  M.  de  Buffon 
and  M.  Daubenton  to  have  been  an  Elephant.  Dr.  Hunter  demon- 
strated it  not  to  have  been  an  Elephant.  Similar  bones  are  found  in 
Siberia,  where  it  is  called  the  Mammoth.  The  Indians  of  America 
say  it  still  exists  very  far  north  in  our  continent.”  There  are  also 
some  reflections  about  the  philosophies,  such  as  John  Adams  could 
have  written : “I  am  glad  to  hear  you  have  been  so  happy  as  to  be- 
come acquainted  with  M.  de  Saussure.  He  is  certainly  one  of  the 
best  philosophers  of  the  present  age.  Cautious  in  not  letting  his  as- 
sent run  before  his  evidence,  he  possesses  the  wisdom  which  so  few 
possess  of  preferring  ignorance  to  error.  The  contrary  disposition  in 
those  who  call  themselves  philosophers  in  this  country  classes  them 
in  fact  with  the  writers  of  romance  . . 

There  is  also  a letter  by  John  Adams,  written  in  his  old  age,  on 
July  29,  1818,  to  Rufus  King.  Apparently  it  has  never  been  pub- 
lished. Here  are  some  passages : 

For  a long  course  of  Years  I have  almost  dispaired  of  the 
Policy  of  Themistocles,  of  Colbert,  De  Witt  and  Cromwell,  or 
even  of  Queen  Elizabeth  in  this  Country. 

Nothing  has  wounded  my  soul  so  deeply  as  to  see  the  Opposi- 
tion that  I have  seen  in  Massachusetts,  and  even  in  the  Town  of 
Marblehead,  to  a National  Navy. 

I have  never  dared,  and  I dare  not  now,  to  look  forward  to 
future  Events  in  America.  Your  Assurances  of  Union  revive 
me.  Nothing  would  give  me  more  pleasure  than  to  communicate 
freely  with  you  on  these  Subjects;  but  Mr.  Addison’s  faulty 
figure  of  the  “expiring  flame  of  the  dying  lamp”  is  the  Emblem 
of  your  most  humble  servant,  etc. 

Similarly  unpublished  is  John  James  Audubon’s  letter  to  his  son 
Victor,  written  in  London  on  October  10,  1828.  Having  described 
the  progress  of  his  work  on  the  first  volume  of  the  Birds  of  America, 
Audubon  gives  a few  details  of  his  technique  in  making  the  plates 
and,  then,  with  justifiable  pride  he  boasts : 

A full  length  portrait  of  myself  will  form  the  Frontispiece,  and 
in  centuries  hence  the  name  of  Audubon  will  stand  on  the  pages 
of  Ornithology  . . . When  I retrograde  in  thought  on  my  situa- 
tion when  I first  landed  in  England  with  340  £ an  unknown  in- 
dividual and  therefore  not  a friend  in  this  country,  and  again 
think  and  see  that  in  less  than  two  years  I have  established 
such  Publication  as  mine,  have  procured  125  subscribers,  have 
become  honorary  member  of  11  of  the  first  Societies  in  the 


RARE  BOOKS  AND  MANUSCRIPTS 


59 


Country,  have  managed  to  pay  punctually  all  engagements  and 
find  myself  supplied  with  sufficient  funds  to  proceed  without 
fear,  I wonder  at  my  extraordinary  great  Luck,  or  Industry 
or  whatever  you  may  please  to  term  it. 

There  are  brief  letters  by  Emerson,  Longfellow,  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes,  and  William  Cullen  Bryant;  a few  lines  and  a signature 
by  John  Winthrop,  the  first  Governor  of  the  Bay  Colony,  and  by 
Edward  Rawson,  Clerk  of  the  General  Court ; a congressional  reso- 
lution made  on  June  30,  1775,  to  the  effect  that  in  case  any  Indian 
tribes  were  to  support  the  British  ministry  the  Colonies  would 
undertake  an  alliance  with  their  enemies ; a broadside  containing  a 
military  appointment  signed  by  Samuel  Adams  as  Governor  of 
Massachusetts;  and  other  similar  material. 

Among  the  English  items  there  is  a remarkable  document  in  the 
handwriting  of  Isaac  Walton,  author  of  The  Compleat  Angler , re- 
lating to  a house  purchased  by  him  at  Halstead  on  the  river  Colne 
in  Essex.  It  contains  the  deposition  of  Walton's  neighbor,  Walter 
Noell,  who  testified  that  John  Meison  had  no  right  to  walk  through 
Walton’s  yard  and  that  in  so  doing  he  was  a trespasser. 

In  a long  letter,  dated  May  17,  1754,  Samuel  Richardson  thanks 
Lady  Elizabeth  Echlin  for  her  acceptance  of  his  Sir  Charles  Grandi- 
son.  The  letter,  apparently  unpublished,  contains  acute  and  detailed 
comments  on  the  characters  in  both  Sir  Charles  Grandison  and  Clarissa. 
The  following  is  a characteristic  passage : 

I admire  your  Ladiship  for  what  you  say  of  Clementina,  and 
the  Count  of  Belvedere.  I have  half  a dozen  of  my  female  Cor- 
respondents, who  (sweet  Romancers,  as  they  are,  yet  know  it 
not)  cannot  bear  the  Thoughts  of  that  noble  Lady’s  resolving 
to  reward  the  Count  for  his  persevering  Love.  Till  now,  I thought 
Constancy  and  Fervour  in  a Lover  sufficient  to  make  any  Man, 
not  unworthy  from  want  of  Rank,  Fortune,  Morals,  a Merit  in 
the  Heart  of  the  noblest  Woman.  But  some  Ladies  had  rather 
forgive  (and  this  perhaps  to  the  Praise  of  their  Generosity!)  real 
Faults  in  a Lover,  than  reward  passive  Values.  — It  is  not  often 
given  to  Woman,  when  addressed  by  more  than  one  Man,  to  choose 
for  Plappiness.  Something  glaring,  active,  bustling,  will  engage 
her,  as  it  has  done  those  who  sitting  in  Judgment  on  the  Charac- 
ters of  Clementina  and  Harriet,  prefer  that  of  Clementina:  Who, 
however,  I think  of  as  an  admirable  Woman;  and  as  a Sister 
not  unworthy  of  the  generous  Love  of  Harriet. 

On  May  26,  180.1,  Admiral  Nelson  wrote  from  board  of  the  St. 


6o 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

George , off  Rostock,  to  Alleyne  Fitzherbert,  Lord  St.  Helens,  the 
new  English  Ambassador  to  St.  Petersburg.  Written  shortly  after 
the  assassination  of  Tsar  Paul  and  the  subsequent  collapse  of  the 
Northern  Confederacy  formed  against  England,  the  letter  is  not  in- 
cluded in  The  Dispatches  and  Letters  of  Lord  Nelson , published  in 
seven  volumes  in  1845-46. 

A letter  by  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge,  dated  February  6,  1818, 
shows  his  preoccupation  at  that  time  with  the  work  of  the  English 
reformers : 

Brerewood’s  tract  begins  where  I have  put  in  the  slip  of  Paper. 
The  first  treatise  I have  never  been  able  to  light  on ; but  this  is 
a whole  in  itself.  Byfield’s  work  is  interesting  only  as  it  leads  to 
the  history  and  origin  of  the  controversy  — and  as  a specimen 
of  the  Bigotry  and  mob-adulation  of  the  Puritans,  of  that  age  — 
at  least  of  too  many  of  them.  The  first  great  Reformers,  nay, 
Calvin  himself  in  his  best  works,  breathe  a far  other  spirit  — • 
and  in  a marked  degree  the  Founders  and  Martyrs  of  the  Church 
in  England,  till  errors  on  both  sides  brought  it  to  be  the  Church 
of  England  as  by  Law. 

Byron’s  letter,  written  on  December  13,  1820,  from  Ravenna  to 
Richard  B.  Hoppner,  the  English  consul  at  Venice,  has  been  pub- 
lished ; yet  the  poet’s  remarks  about  the  German  translation  of  his 
Manfred  are  worth  quoting:  “There  is  a German  translation  of 
Manfred  — with  a plaguy  long  dissertation  at  the  end  of  it;  it  would 
be  out  of  all  measure  and  conscience  to  ask  you  to  translate  the 
whole,  but  if  you  could  give  me  a short  sketch  of  it  I should  thank 
you  — or  if  you  would  make  somebody  do  the  whole  into  Italian,  it 
would  do  as  well ; and  I would  willingly  pay  some  poor  Italian  Ger- 
man Scholar  for  his  trouble.” 

Walter  Scott  sent  to  Sir  William  Knighton,  Keeper  of  the  Privy 
Purse  to  George  IV,  on  May  18,  1829,  the  first  copy  of  the  new  edi- 
tion of  the  Waverly  Novels  inscribed  to  the  King.  “As  it  is  a work 
intended  for  wide  diffusion  and  a small  price,”  the  novelist  wrote, 
“its  exterior  could  not  have  that  splendour  which  ought  to  have 
attended  the  Dedication,  but  I trust  the  decorations  which  I believe 
are  good,  at  least  they  are  executed  by  the  best  artists  we  have,  may 
be  esteemed  some  apology  for  the  humility  of  the  volumes.  We 
start  with  a sale  of  ten  thousand  which  in  a work  which  runs  to  40 
volumes  is  a very  considerable  matter.” 

A letter  by  Charles  L.  Dodgson,  the  Lewis  Carroll  of  Alice  in 
W onderland,  is  particularly  touching,  if  not  pathetic.  Dated  East- 


RARE  BOOKS  AND  MANUSCRIPTS 


61 


bourne,  September  7,  1883,  the  writer  speaks  of  his  desire  to  know 
certain  children  in  spite  of  their  guardians’  opposition. 

The  miscellaneous  items  include  a letter  by  Lorenzo  de  Medici 
and  one  by  Martin  Luther.  Luther’s  letter,  written  in  August  1537, 
is  addressed  to  the  Council  of  Torgau,  in  Silesia.  The  reformer 
asked  the  aldermen  of  the  town  to  help  their  parson,  who  had  served 
them  for  fourteen  years,  to  buy  a piece  of  land  on  which  he  could 
build  a house  for  his  family.  There  is  also  Haydn’s  acknowledg- 
ment of  his  election  to  the  Institut  National  des  Sciences  et  des 
Arts  in  Paris,  written  in  Vienna  in  April  1802,  and  a receipt  given 
by  Beethoven  for  twelve  gold  ducats  paid  to  him  to  cover  the  ex- 
penses which  he  had  incurred  in  connection  with  the  manuscripts 
of  three  Scotch  songs  sent  to  him  by  George  Thompson. 

The  unpublished  letters  in  the  collection  will  be  printed  in  full 
in  future  issues  of  this  magazine. 

ZOLTAN  HARASZTI 


Wynkyn  de  Worde’s  P assy  on  of  1521 

THE  Passyon  of  our  Lorde  was  issued  by  Wynkyn  de  Worde  in 
London  on  October  6,  1521.  Following  the  colophon  is  the 
printer’s  striking,  three-panelled  device,  containing  in  the  central 
panel  the  printer’s  mark  of  his  former  master,  William  Caxton 
(McKerrow  25).  The  volume  is  illustrated  with  sixteen  large  wood- 
cuts  and  one  repeat,  each  filling  approximately  two-thirds  or  one- 
half  of  a page,  and  nine  small  cuts,  including  one  repeat.  Some  of 
the  decorated  initials  consist  of  two  faces  in  profile ; the  type  is  a 
large  black  letter.  The  book  is  very  rare;  the  Short-Title  Catalogue 
mentions  only  two  copies.  , 

Treatise  and  woodcuts  are  wholly  medieval  in  spirit,  unruffled 
by  a breath  from  Reformation  or  Renaissance.  On  the  verso  of  the 
title-page  is  the  statement  that  the  book  has  been  translated  from 
the  French  by  Andrew  Chertsey  in  1520.  Chertsey,  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  London,  was  known  as  the  seat  of  the  monastery  of  St.  Peter. 
It  may  be  supposed  that  the  writer  came  from  a family  in  that  re- 
gion. In  a verse  prologue  Robert  Copland  introduces  him  as  one  who 
has  endeavored 

Bokes  to  translate  in  volumes  large  and  fayre 
From  frenche  in  prose,  of  goostly  exemplayre. 


62 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

Copland  enumerates  Chertsey’s  other  works,  the  Flour  of  Goddes 
Commaundements,  a treatise  called  Lucydary , “with  two  other  of 
the  seuyn  sacraments/  One  of  christen  men  the  ordinary/The 
seconde,  the  craft  to  lyue  well  and  to  dye.”  He  further  explains 
that  the  book  was  formerly  in  a language  too  rude,  and  that  the 
translator  has  applied  himself  to  banish  this  vice,  presenting  the 
work  in  clear  English,  at  the  instance  of  Wynkyn  de  Worde.  Cop- 
land, although  he  signed  only  the  prologue  and  the  invocation  at 
the  end,  is  believed  to  be  also  the  author  of  the  stanzas,  much  in 
the  same  style,  that  introduce  the  prose  chapters.  A printer  and 
bookseller,  as  well  as  writer  and  translator,  he  was  in  the  service 
of  Wynkyn  de  Worde,  but  had  set  up  his  own  printing  establish- 
ment by  1515.  His  printing  output  was  small,  but  he  is  credited 
with  a long  list  of  works,  mostly  translations  and  compilations,  be- 
ginning with  The  Kalender  of  Shepherdes , printed  by  de  Worde  in 
1508,  and  including  the  poems  Hye  Way  to  the  Spyttel  Hous  and  Jyl 
of  Breynt fords  Testament.  He  was  an  executor  of  de  Worde’s  will 
in  1533.  Mr.  John  M.  Berdan,  in  his  study  of  Early  Tudor  Poetry, 
(1920)  remarks  that  Copland  “may  be  taken  as  an  extreme  example 
of  those  importing  French  influence.” 

The  book  is  a narrative  of  the  Passion  summarized  from  the 
Gospels,  beginning  with  the  raising  of  Lazarus  and  ending  with 
the  entombment  of  Christ.  The  expositions  are  in  the  nature  of  a 
sermon,  with  occasional  hits  at  contemporary  evils.  Having  told 
how  the  Jews  would  not  enter  the  court  of  Pilate  because  he  was  a 
pagan,  lest  they  be  thought  unworthy  to  partake  of  their  paschal 
feast,  the  writer  comments : “Of  the  which  condycyon  dyvers  be 
of  nowe  a dayes  the  which  haue  no  conscyence  to  slee  [slay]  a man 
by  sclaundre  [slander]  and  backbytynge  where  they  wyll  shewe 
themselfe  to  haue  conscyence  of  a small  thinge.”  The  chapter  treat- 
ing of  Lazarus  contains  some  harrowing  descriptions  of  the  tor- 
ments of  purgatory  and  hell.  Throughout,  the  narrator  dwells  on 
the  effect  of  events  on  the  Virgin  Mary. 

The  woodcuts  give  the  book  its  special  interest.  They  range 
from  crude,  naive  efforts  to  the  well  composed  and  forcefully  cut 
Crucifixion  of  the  title  page,  and  belong  to  different  series  and 
periods.  Wynkyn  de  Worde,  who  succeeded  Caxton  in  1491  and 
ten  years  later  moved  from  Westminster  to  Fleet  Street  in  London, 
acquired,  with  Caxton’s  other  stock,  also  his  woodcut  blocks,  some 
of  which  furnished  illustrations  for  the  Passyon.  Four  cuts  which 
Caxton  first  used  in  the  Speculum  Vitae  Christi  by  St.  Bonaventura 


RARE  BOOKS  AND  MANUSCRIPTS 


63 

can  be  identified.  According-  to  Hodnett’s  English  Woodcuts  1480- 
T585'  ^e  design  and  style  of  these  cuts  is  Flemish.  In  the  Passyon, 
the  first  of  the  Caxton  cuts  illustrates  the  raising  of  Lazarus,  al- 
though it  was  originally  intended  to  represent  the  raising  of  the 
daughter  of  Jairus.  Indeed,  the  figure  coming  to  life  on  the  bier  is 
evidently  a girl  and  the  man  kneeling  in  joyful  consternation 
would  naturally  be  her  father.  The  following  cut  shows  Mary  Mag- 
dalen anointing  the  feet  of  Christ.  The  gestures  of  the  figures  are 
pronounced,  and  the  fish  on  a plate,  the  loaves  and  salt-cellars  on 
the  table  are  naively  realistic.  The  Entrance  into  Jerusalem  is  the 
usual  dramatic  composition.  The  fourth  Caxton  cut  is  a rather 
primitive  crucifixion. 

Most  of  the  small  cuts  seem  to  have  made  their  appearance  for 
the  first  time  in  the  volume.  Hodnett  distinguishes  two  series  of 
which  these  form  parts : to  the  first  belong  a little  cut  depicting 
the  thieves  tied  to  their  crosses,  and  another  which  shows  the  rais- 
ing of  the  sponge;  to  the  second,  which  may  have  been  cut  out  by 
Flemish  hands,  belong  five  small  cuts,  Christ  before  Pilate  and  a 
striking  “Ecce  Homo”  among  them. 

Six  larger  cuts  of  another  group,  also  first  introduced  in  the 
Passyon  of  1521,  include  the  notable  cut  on  the  title  page ; the  Agony 
in  the  Garden,  in  which  the  faces  of  the  sleeping  Apostles  are  sharp- 
ly characterized;  Judas  returning  the  money;  the  scourging  of 
Christ;  Pilate  washing  his  hands;  and  the  entombment.  The  com- 
position in  all  these  cuts  is  effective,  and  the  figures  have  consider- 
able animation.  “Collectively  the  set  represents  a high  level  of 
woodcutting,”  Hodnett  comments,  “and  if  perchance  it  is  the  work 
of  De  Worde’s  chief  man,  then  it  is  his  chef  d’ oeuvre.  The  original 
designs  must  be  French.” 

Finally  the  volume  contains  four  cruder  cuts,  one  of  which  — 
Christ  before  Caiphas  — appeared  for  the  first  time  in  the  Passyon 
of  1521,  while  the  others  were  used  by  de  Wcrde  in  St.  Bonaven- 
tura’s  Vita  Christi  of  1509  or  1517. 

The  Library’s  copy  is  handsomely  bound  in  dark  blue  morocco 
by  Riviere. 


Margaret  Munsterberg 


Trustees  of  the  Library 

Lee  M.  Friedman,  President 
Robert  H.  Lord,  Vice-President 
Frank  W.  Buxton  Frank  J.  Donahue 

Patrick  F.  McDonald 

Director,  and  Librarian 

Milton  Edward  Lord 


Contributors  to  this  Issue 

Edouard  A.  Stackpole  is  connected  with  the  Nantucket  Inquirer 
and  Mirror.  He  has  recently  been  awarded  a Guggenheim  fellow- 
ship for  research  work  on  American  whaling  in  the  nineteenth 
century. 

Ethel  K.  Ware  (Ph.D.,  Columbia)  is  the  author  of  A Constitutional 
History  of  Georgia , published  by  the  Columbia  University  Press 
in  1947. 

Muriel  C.  Figenbaum  is  First  Assistant  in  the  Print  Department 
of  the  Library. 

Margaret  Munsterberg,  Ellen  M.  Oldham,  and  Alison  Bishop 
are  members  of  the  staff  of  the  Rare  Book  Department  of  the 
Library. 

Zoltan  Haraszti  is  Keeper  of  Rare  Books  and  Editor  of  Publica- 
tions at  the  Boston  Public  Library. 


12.10.St.  1M. 


THE 

Boston  Public  Library 
QUARTERLY 


Volume  4,  Number  2 


Contents 


Page 

A Gift  of  Rare  Books  67 

By  Zoltdn  Haraszti 

Alcott's  Search  for  the  Child  88 

By  Sherman  Paul 

The  Anarchiad  and  the  Massachusetts  Centinel  9 7 

By  Abe  C.  Ravitz 

Frank  W.  Benson,  Painter  and  Etcher  102 

By  Arthur  W . Heintzelman 

Notes  on  Rare  Books 

An  Early  German  Carnival  Play  108 

By  Margaret  Mimsterberg 

The  Spirit  of  Young  America  110 

By  Alison  Bishop 

Illustrations  and  Facsimiles 


** 

* 


EDITOR:  ZOLTAN  HARASZTI 

The  Boston  Public  Library  Quarterly  is  published  for  January,  April,  July, 
and  October  by  the  Trustees  of  the  Public  Library  of  the  City  of  Boston 
in  Copley  Square,  Boston  17.  Entered  as  second-class  matter  at  Boston, 
Massachusetts.  Printed  at  the  Boston  Public  Library  in  March  1952 

Single  Copies , 50  cents 
Annual  Subscription,  $ 2.00 


THE 

Boston  Public  Library 
QUARTERLY 


April  1952 

A Gift  of  Rare  Books 

By  ZOLTAN  HARASZTI 

IT  is  a pleasure  to  announce  that  Mr.  Lee  M.  Friedman, 
President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  and  a noted  book  collec- 
tor, has  donated  to  the  Library  an  important  group  of  rare 
books,  mostly  first  editions  of  eighteenth-  and  nineteenth-century 
literature.  Many  of  the  items  fill  gaps  in  the  Library’s  collec- 
tions; but,  apart  from  the  value  of  the  books,  there  is  a special 
satisfaction  in  the  spirit  which  has  prompted  Mr.  Friedman’s 
action : 

“The  rare  book  collections,”  he  stated,  “constitute  one  of 
the  chief  distinctions  of  the  Boston  Public  Library;  yet  the  de- 
velopment of  such  collections  in  a public  institution  must  de- 
pend on  the  contributions  of  private  individuals.  It  has  been 
so  in  the  past,  and  will  continue  to  be  so  in  the  future.  I am 
confident  that  the  people  of  Boston,  as  well  as  bookmen  all  over 
the  country,  take  pride  in  the  treasures  of  the  Boston  Public 
Library;  and  I shall  be  happy  if  my  gift  animates  such  an  in- 
terest, and  encourages  others  to  follow  the  example.” 

Indeed,  most  of  the  great  rare  book  collections  of  the  Libra- 
ry were  received  as  donations  or  deposits.  In  the  early  days  of 
the  institution,  George  Ticknor  gave  his  matchless  collection 
of  Spanish  literature,  together  with  a trust  fund  for  its  upkeep; 
the  Bowditch  collection  of  mathematics  and  astronomy,  again 
with  a fund,  was  given  by  the  heirs  of  Nathaniel  Bowditch;  the 


67 


68 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 


Prince  collection  of  Americana,  one  of  the  greatest  of  its  kind, 
was  deposited  by  the  trustees  of  the  Old  South  Church,  as  was 
later  the  library  of  President  John  Adams  by  the  Supervisors 
of  the  Adams  Temple  and  School  Fund.  For  the  Barton  collec- 
tion of  English  literature,  including  one  of  the  richest  groups 
of  Shakespeareana  and  Elizabethan  books,  the  Library  paid 
only  a nominal  sum.  Mellen  Chamberlain  gave  a collection  of 
historical  manuscripts,  the  hoardings  of  a lifetime.  And  similar- 
ly there  have  been  gifts  and  trust  funds  for  the  collections  of 
Americana,  modern  literature,  the  history  of  the  theater,  and 
so  on.  An  extremely  fine  collection  of  Books  of  Common  Pray- 
er and  a princely  trust  fund  for  the  purchase  of  books  of  per- 
manent value  and  use  were  bequeathed  by  Josiah  H.  Benton,  a 
former  President  of  the  Board  and  the  greatest  benefactor  in 
the  history  of  the  Library.  The  accumulated  interest  of  the 
Benton  Fund  made  it  possible  some  twelve  years  ago,  when 
the  fund  first  became  available,  to  round  out  the  collections  of 
medieval  manuscripts  and  incunabula,  Americana,  English  liter- 
ature, and  many  others. 

The  Library  has  suffered,  as  have  all  public  libraries,  from 
the  keen  competition  which  college  and  university  libraries 
have  increasingly  offered  in  attracting  such  donations.  In  the 
past  half-century,  but  particularly  in  more  recent  years,  many 
academic  libraries  have  formed  rare  book  departments,  and  it 
has  been  a well-recognized  tendency  on  the  part  of  alumni  to 
direct  their  benefactions  towards  their  alma  mater  — a tendency, 
to  be  sure,  with  which  no  one  can  quarrel.  Yet  the  Boston  Pub- 
lic Library  deserves  a continued  and  more  than  local  interest, 
for,  by  virtue  of  its  existing  treasures,  it  is  in  many  respects  a na- 
tional institution,  the  services  of  which  are  extended  to  scholars 
throughout  the  country  and  even  abroad.  Requests  for  research 
came  to  the  Rare  Book  Department  last  year  from  thirty-five 
states  of  the  Union,  as  well  as  from  England,  France,  Spain, 
Canada,  the  Philippines,  and  a number  of  Latin-American 
countries. 

The  city  of  Boston,  of  course,  derives  primary  benefits  from 
these  great  collections.  The  exhibits  in  the  Treasure  Room  bring  the 
rare  books  and  manuscripts  of  the  Library  to  the  attention  of  the 
public,  and  classes  from  high  schools  and  colleges  as  well  as 


A GIFT  OF  RARE  BOOKS 


69 


groups  of  craftsmen  and  book-lovers  receive  from  them  much 
pleasurable  instruction.  A public  library  can  make  its  resources 
available  more  liberally,  and  to  a wider  range  of  people,  than 
can  a private  institution. 

Here  are  a few  notes  on  Mr.  Friedman’s  generous  donation: 

T HE  most  interesting  of  the  eighteenth-century  items  is  a 
copy  of  Henry  Fielding’s  Tom  Jones , ‘‘that  exquisite  picture  of 
human  manners,”  which,  as  Gibbon  prophesied,  “will  survive 
the  palace  of  the  Escurial  and  the  imperial  eagle  of  the  house 
of  Austria.”  The  work  was  published  on  February  28,  1749,  in 
six  volumes,  by  A.  Millar,  “over-against  Catharine-Street  in 
the  Strand.”  Fielding  dedicated  it  to  George  Lyttleton,  a for- 
mer schoolmate  of  his  at  Eton  and  then  one  of  the  Commission- 
ers of  the  Treasury,  to  whom,  he  wrote,  he  owed  his  existence 
“during  great  part  of  the  time”  he  was  composing  the  novel. 
The  Table  of  Contents  of  the  six  volumes  occupies  forty-six 
pages;  then  comes  a page  of  “errata,”  listing  some  sixty  mis- 
takes, but  covering  only  the  first  five  volumes.  The  title-page 
carries  the  motto  “Mores  hominum  multorum  vidit”  — “He 
saw  the  ways  of  many  men”  — the  briefest  and  best  descrip- 
tion of  the  hero’s  experiences. 

The  sale  was  so  fast  that  the  publisher,  as  he  stated  in  an 
advertisement,  was  unable  to  get  sets  bound  rapidly  enough  to 
answer  the  demand;  copies  in  paper  covers  were  offered  at 
a cheaper  price:  sixteen  shillings  a set  instead  of  a guinea.  It 
must  have  been  this  haste  which  prevented  the  printer  from 
correcting  the  errors  in  the  sixth  volume;  in  fact,  work  had 
started  by  then  on  the  second  edition.  In  the  latter,  the  er- 
rors were  corrected  and  the  page  of  “errata”  was  suppressed, 
the  Table  of  Contents  being  spread  out  to  fill  its  place.  The 
publisher  tried  to  make  the  second  edition  look  exactly  like 
the  first;  the  number  of  pages  was  the  same,  but  the  composi- 
tors did  not  always  succeed  in  reproducing  the  original  pages, 
so  that  there  are  hundreds  of  variations.  Frederick  S.  Dickson, 
in  his  edition  of  Thomas  Keightley's  biography  of  Fielding, 
noted  more  than  a hundred  of  these.  However,  the  sheets  of  the 
two  editions  are  often  found  mixed  in  the  same  set;  only  a de- 


70 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

tailed  examination  can  determine  the  nature  of  a copy.  Such 
an  examination  has  been  made  in  the  present  case,  and  it  shows 
that  the  set,  with  the  exception  of  the  second  volume,  belongs 
to  the  first  edition.  The  title-page  of  the  first  volume,  too,  is  of 
the  second  edition,  as  it  lacks  the  period  after  the  motto. 

The  second  edition  was  published  on  April  13,  1749;  and  on 
the  same  day  a third  edition  appeared  in  four  volumes.  Within 
a few  years  the  book  was  translated  into  French,  German,  and 
several  other  languages. 

Printed  in  1798,  the  Lyrical  Ballads  is  technically  an  eighteenth- 
century  book;  but  in  every  other  respect  it  belongs  to  the  nine- 
teenth century.  It  is  a landmark  which  separates  the  old  poetry 
from  the  new.  The  volume  contains  the  first  printing  of  “The 
Ancient  Mariner,”  and  three  other  poems  by  Coleridge,  and 
also  the  first  printing  of  “The  Idiot  Boy,”  “We  Are  Seven,” 
“Lines  Written  a Few  Miles  above  Tintern  Abbey,”  and  six- 
teen other  pieces  by  Wordsworth.  In  an  “Advertisement” 
Wordsworth  remarked  that  the  majority  of  the  poems  were  to 
be  considered  as  experiments.  “They  were  written,”  he  stated, 
“chiefly  with  a view  to  ascertain  how  far  the  language  of  con- 
versation in  the  middle  and  lower  classes  of  society  is  adapted 
to  the  purposes  of  poetic  pleasure.”  He  recognized  that  readers 
accustomed  to  “the  gaudiness  and  inane  phraseology”  of  many 
current  writers  might  find  the  poems  strange  and  awkward,  and 
“look  round  for  poetry”;  he  suggested,  however,  that  they  should 
ask  themselves  whether  the  book  contained  “a  natural  delinea- 
tion of  human  passion,  human  characters,  and  human  inci- 
dents.” In  his  famous  preface  to  the  1800  edition  he  further 
elaborated  these  comments  into  an  artistic  creed,  particularly 
suited  to  his  own  poetry.  Coleridge,  in  his  Biographia  Liter  aria, 
remembered  their  goal  somewhat  differently.  While  admitting 
that  some  of  the  poems  were  to  have  “subjects  chosen  from 
ordinary  life,”  he  spoke  at  greater  length  of  the  other  class  of 
poems  in  which  “the  incidents  and  agents  were  to  be  in  part  at 
least  supernatural,  and  the  excellence  aimed  at  was  to  consist 
in  the  interesting  of  the  affections  by  the  dramatic  truth  of  such 
emotions  as  would  naturally  accompany  such  situations,  sup- 
posing them  real”  — a statement  applying  much  more  closely 
to  his  own  contributions. 


LYRICAL  BALLADS, 


WITH 


A FEW  OTHER  POEMS . 


LONDON: 

PRINTED  FOR  J.  A.  ARCH,  CRACECIIURCH-STREET, 

1/98. 


Title-Page  of  the  First  London  Edition 


A GIFT  OF  RARE  BOOKS 


73 


The  origin  of  the  volume  was  more  simple.  In  the  summer 
of  1797  Coleridge  was  living  at  Nether  Stowey,  near  Bristol, 
while  Wordsworth  and  his  sister  took  a house  at  Alfoxden, 
three  miles  away.  On  a walking  trip  in  November,  the  two 
young  poets  decided  to  compose  a ballad  which  they  might 
sell  for  five  pounds  to  Joseph  Cottle,  Coleridge’s  friend  and 
publisher,  and  thus  defray  their  expenses.  The  project  grew 
into  the  Lyrical  Ballads , which  finally  appeared  in  September 
1798.  Five  hundred  copies  were  printed,  but  within  a fortnight 
Cottle  sold  the  whole  edition  to  the  London  booksellers  J.  and 
A.  Arch,  who  furnished  a new  title-page  bearing  their  own  im- 
print. The  book  received  fairly  favorable  notices,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Robert  Southey’s  review,  which  ridiculed  “The  An- 
cient Mariner”  as  “a  Dutch  attempt  at  German  sublimity.” 

Copies  of  the  Lyrical  Ballads  with  the  Bristol  imprint  are  ex- 
tremely rare.  But  even  this  issue  underwent  a certain  transfor- 
mation. In  its  original  state  it  included  the  poem  “Lewti;  Or, 
the  Circassian’s  Love  Chant,”  first  printed  in  the  Morning  Post 
for  April  13,  1798,  and  known  to  have  been  by  Coleridge.  Since 
the  volume  was  to  be  published  anonymously,  at  the  last  mo- 
ment the  poets  decided  to  omit  the  poem  and  substitute  Cole- 
ridge’s “The  Nightingale”  instead.  Unfortunately,  “Lewti”  oc- 
cupied three  leaves  only,  whereas  “The  Nightingale”  required 
four.  Two  pages,  therefore,  were  ignored  in  the  pagination; 
p.  69  is  followed  by  a blank  page,  and  the  next  poem,  “The  Fe- 
male Vagrant,”  begins  on  an  unnumbered  page.  Next,  the 
poets  cancelled  leaf  Gi,  containing  pages  97-98,  inserting  a 
new  leaf  on  which  the  line  “Than  fifty  years  of  reason”  was 
changed  to  “Than  years  of  toiling  reason”  and  the  title  of  the 
poem  “Simon  Lee”  was  condensed  by  the  omission  of  the  line 
“With  an  incident  in  which  he  was  concerned.”  All  these 
changes  occurred  in  the  Bristol  issue.  There  are  only  a few 
copies  of  the  London  edition  which  retain  the  cancelled  leaf  — 
and  the  copy  now  presented  to  the  Library  is  one  of  these.  It 
is  the  Hoe  copy,  bound  in  the  original  brown  calf,  with  gilt 
decoration  around  the  edges. 

The  Lyrical  Ballads  is  undoubtedly  the  most  valuable  item 
in  the  group.  Apart  from  its  rarity,  the  book  is  coveted  as  a 
literary  treasure;  and  one  should  note  that  its  version  of  “The 


74 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

Ancient  Mariner”  (still  spelled  “The  Ancyent  Marinere”)  in- 
cludes ten  stanzas  which  Coleridge  entirely  discarded  from 
later  editions.  The  Library,  which  has  long  felt  the  desirability 
of  a copy,  is  especially  glad  to  have  the  volume  — and  have  it 
in  such  splendid  condition. 

!ShELLEY  was  twenty  when  he  wrote  Queen  Mab,  his  first 
long  poem,  and  the  most  controversial  of  all  his  works.  In  Au- 
gust 1812  he  sent  a few  cantos  of  it  to  Thomas  Hookham,  the 
London  publisher,  stating  that  he  was  going  to  write  about  six 
more,  and  that  “the  Past,  the  Present,  and  the  Future  are  the 
grand  and  comprehensive  topics  of  this  poem.”  He  finished  the 
work  by  the  following  February,  adding  at  that  time  the  ex- 
planatory notes,  which  occupy  about  as  much  space  as  the  poem 
itself.  Hookham  was  afraid  to  publish  the  work,  which  ap- 
peared in  May  1813  as  “Printed  by  P.  B.  Shelley,  23  Chapel  St., 
Grosvenor  Square.”  The  book,  however,  was  not  offered  for 
sale,  and  Shelley  distributed  only  a few  dozen  of  its  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  copies. 

Queen  Mab  has  been  described  as  a socialistic  and  irreligious 
gospel.  The  poet,  steeped  in  the  writings  of  Voltaire,  d’Hol- 
bach,  Condorcet,  and  Godwin,  and  of  Lucretius,  Bacon,  and 
Spinoza,  blamed  the  misery  of  mankind  on  tyranny  and  priest- 
craft; he  expressed  the  philoso plies’  view  of  history,  together 
with  their  unbounded  belief  in  the  perfectibility  of  man  and  the 
progress  of  mankind.  How  deeply  Shelley  felt  his  poem  may 
be  seen  from  the  fact  that  he  named  his  daughter  Ianthe  after 
the  mortal  to  whom  Queen  Mab  addresses  her  reflections.  The 
book  was  condemned  for  its  attacks  on  religion,  and  in  1817 
was  used  as  chief  evidence  against  the  poet  in  his  suit  for 
the  custody  of  his  children,  as  a Work  which  “blasphemously 
derided  the  truth  of  Christian  Revelation  and  denied  the  ex- 
istence of  God  as  Creator  of  the  Universe.”  Yet  Queen  Mab  remained 
unknown  to  the  public  until  1821,  when  William  Clark  brought 
out  a surreptitious  edition.  By  then  Shelley  had  disowned  the 
poem.  “I  have  not  seen  this  production  for  several  years,”  he 
wrote  from  Pisa  to  Leigh  Hunt’s  Examiner : “I  doubt  not  but 
that  it  is  perfectly  worthless  in  point  of  literary  composition; 


A GIFT  OF  RARE  BOOKS 


75 


and  that  in  all  that  concerns  moral  and  political  speculation,  as 
well  as  in  the  subtler  discriminations  of  metaphysical  and  reli- 
gious doctrine,  it  is  still  more  crude  and  immature.”  While 
protesting  that  he  was  “a  devoted  enemy  to  religious,  political, 
and  domestic  oppression,”  he  regretted  the  publication,  fearing 
that  the  book  was  “better  fitted  to  injure  than  to  serve  the 
cause  of  freedom,”  and  applied  to  Chancery  for  an  injunction 
against  the  sale.  Clark  was  subsequently  brought  before  the 
court  and  sentenced  to  four  months  of  imprisonment  — not  for 
the  piracy,  but  for  blasphemy. 

The  Library,  which  has  a splendid  copy  (the  Locker-Clawson 
copy)  of  the  1813  edition  of  Queen  Mab,  is  glad  to  have  now  a 
copy  of  the  1821  edition.  Clark,  in  fact,  produced  two  issues, 
one  in  a somewhat  larger  format  on  fine  white  paper;  the  vol- 
ume presented  to  the  Library  is  of  this  issue.  The  1821  edition 
differs  from  the  one  published  by  Shelley  in  that  the  numerous 
Greek,  Latin,  and  French  quotations  in  the  notes  are  given 
also  in  English  translation,  and  in  that  a few  of  the  more  ag- 
gressive passages  are  omitted.  The  mutilations  occur  on  five  or 
six  pages  of  the  poem,  and  in  three  or  four  of  the  notes.  The 
copy  contains  the  dedication  to  “Harriet  *****  ” 

Clark  was  sent  to  prison,  but  meanwhile  Richard  Carlile,  an- 
other London  printer,  took  hold  of  the  sheets  and,  providing  a 
new  title-page  with  his  own  imprint,  issued  the  book  in  both 
the  complete  and  the  censored  forms  in  1822.  Within  twenty 
years  no  less  than  fourteen  editions  appeared.  The  radicals,  es- 
pecially the  Chartists,  adopted  the  poem  as  one  of  their  most  effective 
propaganda  weapons.  The  Victorians  relegated  Queen  Mab  to 
Shelley’s  juvenilia,  but  recent  writers  regard  it,  in  spite  of  its 
shortcomings,  as  a work  of  genius. 

Keats  began  his  Endymion  in  April  1817  at  Carisbrook,  on 
the  Isle  of  Wight,  and,  continuing  at  Canterbury,  Hampstead, 
and  Oxford,  he  finished  it  in  November  of  the  same  year.  Dur- 
ing the  following  winter  he  was  engaged  in  revising  this  poem 
of  over  four  thousand  lines,  which  in  April  1818  was  published 
by  Taylor  and  Hessey  in  London.  The  first  line,  “A  thing  of 
beauty  is  a joy  forever,”  has  become  proverbial;  and  the  work 
abounds  in  passages  of  compactness  and  freshness  found  only 
in  the  great  Elizabethans.  Yet,  on  the  whole,  the  poem  is  cha- 


76 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

otic.  Its  chief  theme,  in  the  words  of  Sir  Sidney  Colvin,  is  “the 
passion  of  the  human  soul  for  beauty” ; and,  testing  his  own 
powers  of  invention,  the  poet  embroidered  his  subject  with  an 
almost  oriental  luxuriousness,  interweaving  the  myth  of  En- 
dymion  with  those  of  Pan,  of  Venus  and  Adonis,  of  Alpheus 
and  Arethusa,  of  Glaucus  and  Scylla,  of  Circe,  of  Neptune,  and 
many  more.  “I  think,”  Shelley  remarked,  “if  he  had  printed 
about  fifty  pages  of  fragments  from  it,  I would  have  been  led 
to  admire  Keats  as  a poet  more  than  I ought  . . .”  But  Keats 
himself  was  sensible  of  the  faults  of  the  work,  describing  it  in 
his  preface  as  “a  feverish  attempt,  rather  than  a deed  accomplished.” 
Even  so,  the  harshness  of  the  critics  was  unparalleled.  “The 
frenzy  of  the  Poems”  the  review  in  Blackwood' s Magazine 
stated,  “was  bad  enough  in  its  way;  but  it  did  not  alarm  us  half 
so  seriously  as  the  calm,  settled,  imperturbable  drivelling  idiocy 
of  Endymion .”  It  spoke  of  Keats  as  “only  a boy  of  pretty  abili- 
ties”; reminded  him  that  it  was  “a  better  and  wiser  thing  to  be 
a starved  apothecary  than  a starved  poet”;  and  advised  him  to 
go  back  to  “plasters,  pills,  and  ointment  boxes.”  It  was  prob- 
ably written  by  John  G.  Lockhart,  the  future  son-in-law  of  Sir 
Walter  Scott.  The  tone  of  the  Quarterly  Review  was  not  much 
better.  It  attacked  Keats  as  a disciple  of  the  “Cockney  School 
of  Poetry,”  as  a mere  copyist  of  Leigh  Hunt,  only  “more  unin- 
telligible, almost  as  rugged,  twice  as  diffuse,  and  ten  times  more 
tiresome  and  absurd  than  his  prototype.” 

The  poet  feigned  indifference.  “Praise  or  blame,”  he  wrote, 
“has  but  a momentary  effect  on  a man  whose  love  of  beauty  in 
the  abstract  makes  him  a severe  critic  on  his  own  works.  My 
own  domestic  criticism  has  given  me  pain  without  comparison 
beyond  what  Blackwood's  or  The  Quarterly  could  possibly  in- 
flict.” But  inwardly  he  was  bleeding.  His  friend,  Benjamin  R. 
Haydon,  the  artist,  testified  that  the  effect  of  the  reviews  on 
Keats  was  very  bad.  “He  became  morbid  and  silent,”  he  re- 
called; “would  call  and  sit  whilst  I was  painting,  for  hours, 
without  speaking  a word.”  And  in  his  diary  he  added  that  the 
poet  “flew  to  dissipation  as  a relief,  which,  after  a temporary 
elevation  of  spirits,  plunged  him  into  deeper  despair  than  ever; 
for  six  weeks  he  was  scarcely  sober.”  In  the  preface  to  his 
Adonais,  Shelley  attributed  the  poet’s  death  to  these  savage 


A GIFT  OF  RARE  BOOKS 


77 


criticisms.  “The  agitation  thus  originated,”  he  wrote,  “ended 
in  a rupture  of  a blood-vessel  in  the  lungs.  Rapid  consumption 
ensued,  and  the  succeeding  acknowledgments  from  more  candid 
critics  of  the  true  greatness  of  his  powers  were  ineffectual  to 
heal  the  wound  thus  wantonly  inflicted.”  But  the  charge  only 
made  the  Blackwood’s  people  more  venomous;  they  parodied 
the  Adonais  under  the  title  “Elegy  On  My  Tom  Cat,”  abusing 
the  dead  poet  with  depraved  cynicism. 

There  are  two  issues  of  the  first  edition  of  Endymion,  the 
first  containing  a single  line  of  “erratum,”  and  the  second,  five 
lines  of  “errata.”  The  Library  has  a remarkable  copy  of  the 
second  issue,  in  the  original  brown  boards,  with  the  words 
“From  the  Author”  in  Keats’s  handwriting  on  the  title-page; 
however,  the  copy  now  received  is  of  the  first  issue.  It  is  a 
beautiful,  large  volume,  bound  in  crushed  blue  morocco. 

I-^AMB’S  first  Elia  essay,  “The  South-Sea  House,”  appeared 
in  the  August  1820  issue  of  the  new  London  Magazine;  and  the 
rest  were  contributed  to  the  same  periodical,  at  the  rate  of  at 
least  one  a month,  until  December  1822.  The  papers  attracted 
wide  attention,  and  the  shy  author,  beloved  by  his  friends  but 
little  known  to  the  public,  suddenly  became  a celebrity.  In  a 
letter  to  the  publisher  — the  same  John  Taylor  who  issued 
Keats’s  Endymion  — Lamb  explained  his  nom  de  plume.  Elia, 
he  wrote,  was  a fellow  clerk  of  his  at  the  South-Sea  House 
some  thirty  years  before.  “Doubting  how  he  might  relish  cer- 
tain descriptions  in  it  [the  first  essay],  I clapt  down  the  name 
of  Elia  to  it,  which  passed  off  pretty  well,  for  Elia  himself  added 
the  function  of  an  author  to  that  of  scrivener,  like  myself.”  To 
laugh  with  Elia  over  the  usurpation  of  his  name,  Lamb  went 
to  visit  him,  but  found  that  he  had  died  of  consumption  eleven 
months  before.  It  is  believed  that  Lamb  had  in  mind  Felix  El- 
ba, who  in  1799  published  a romance  called  Norman  Banditti,  or 
the  Fortress  of  Constance.  The  first  series  of  the  essays,  which 
included  “Imperfect  Sympathies,”  “Grace  Before  Meat,”  “The 
Praise  of  Chimney-Sweepers,”  “A  Dissertation  Upon  Roast 
Pig,”  and  other  famous  pieces,  was  published  in  the  spring  of 
1823  by  Taylor  and  Hessey.  Soon  afterwards,  a second  issue 


78 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 


appeared  with  a half-title  added  to  the  title-page.  The  London 
Magazine  ceased  publication  by  the  end  of  1826,  and  some  of 
Lamb’s  later  papers  appeared  in  the  New  Monthly  and  the  Eng- 
lishman's Magazine . In  1833  Edward  Moxon  brought  them  out, 
in  the  format  and  typography  of  the  first  volume,  under  the 
title  The  Last  Essays  of  Elia. 

The  Library  already  had  a magnificent  copy  of  the  Elia  es- 
says — one  which  once  belonged  to  Wordsworth,  whose  sig- 
nature is  on  the  fly-leaf.  The  first  volume  has  the  poet’s  pen- 
cilled comment  on  “Grace  Before  Meat”:  “This  article  is  bad 

— very  bad.  The  subject  is  sacred  whatever  peoples  habits  may 
be.”  Yet  the  copy  of  the  first  volume  now  presented  to  the  Li- 
brary is  very  desirable,  for  it  is  in  the  original  brown  boards. 
Both  copies  have  the  half-title. 

There  are  four  Tennyson  items  in  the  lot  — Poems , By  Two 
Brothers,  1827,  Poems , Chiefly  Lyrical,  1830,  Poems,  1833,  anc^ 
Poems,  1842.  The  Poems,  By  Two  Brothers  is  now  a very  rare 
book.  Tennyson  was  not  yet  eighteen  when  it  was  printed  by 
J.  and  J.  Jackson  at  Louth  in  Lincolnshire.  His  brother  Charles 

— the  later  Charles  Tennyson-Turner  — was  only  a year  older. 
“The  following  poems,”  the  advertisement  stated,  “were  writ- 
ten from  the  ages  of  fifteen  to  eighteen,  not  conjointly,  but  in- 
dividually.” In  the  manuscript  each  poem  was  signed  by  ini- 
tials; these,  however,  were  later  omitted.  The  volume  appeared 
anonymously;  as  the  younger  brother  wrote  to  the  printer, 
“ ‘Charles  and  Alfred  Tennyson’  in  London  would  not  be  taken 
any  more  notice  of  than  no  signature  at  all.”  True  enough,  the 
volume  passed  unnoticed.  The  larger  number  of  its  one  hun- 
dred and  two  poems  were  by  Alfred,  and  the  rest  by  Charles, 
with  the  exception  of  four  — one  of  them  was  “The  Oak  of  the 
North”  — which  were  contributed  by  a third  brother,  Freder- 
ick, then  in  his  twentieth  year.  “No  doubt,”  the  young  poets 
acknowledged,  “if  submitted  to  the  microscopic  eye  of  periodi- 
cal criticism,  a long  list  of  inaccuracies  and  imitations  would 
result  from  the  investigation.”  On  the  title-page  they  printed 
Martial’s  line  “Haec  nos  novimus  esse  nihil”  (“We  know  these 
efforts  are  worth  nothing”)  — as  did  Edgar  Allan  Poe  at  the 
end  of  the  preface  to  his  Tamerlane  in  the  same  year  in  Boston. 
The  volume  is  imitative;  none  of  the  brothers  included  any  of 


WI™  mu 

Wholesale,  Retail  an.d  for  Exportation., 


BY 


£0N  DO  H. 

BRADBURY  &EYANS.  B0UYER1E  STREET. 

)84  8 • 

Title-Page  of  the  Original  Edition  of  Dombey  and  Son  in  Parts 


79 


A GIFT  OF  RARE  BOOKS 


81 


the  poems  in  their  later  collections.  Yet  it  would  be  a mistake 
to  dismiss  it  entirely.  Headed  by  quotations  from  Virgil,  Hor- 
ace, Terence,  and  a wide  variety  of  other  writers,  including 
Shakespeare,  Milton,  Racine,  Rousseau,  Burke,  Moore,  and 
Byron,  the  majority  of  the  poems  are  variations  on  their  themes, 
affording  the  authors  a wide  range  for  excursions  in  both  geog- 
raphy and  history.  The  versification  is  often  surprisingly  good, 
nor  are  the  contents  always  hackneyed. 

The  Poems , Chiefly  Lyrical  reflects  the  rapid  development 
which  Tennyson  achieved  at  Cambridge.  “Claribel,”  “Oriana,” 
“Recollection  of  the  Arabian  Nights,”  and  “Ode  to  Memory” 
are  among  its  best.  The  “Ode  to  Memory,”  described  as  “writ- 
ten very  early  in  life,”  must  have  been  ready  at  the  time  of  the 
Poems,  By  Two  Brothers,  from  which  the  poet  is  known  to  have 
excluded  his  more  individual  pieces.  Without  taking  his  degree, 
Tennyson  left  Cambridge  in  1831,  returning  to  his  unhappy 
home  at  Somersby.  His  father  soon  died,  but  the  family  re- 
remained in  their  house,  the  Rectory,  for  the  next  five  years.  It 
was  in  this  Lincolnshire  village  that  Tennyson  composed  most 
of  the  poems  which  made  up  the  1833  volume.  “The  Lady  of 
Shalott,”  “The  Miller’s  Daughter,”  “Oenone,”  “The  Palace  of 
Art,”  and  “A  Dream  of  Fair  Women”  are  in  the  volume,  pre- 
senting the  poet  at  a far  greater  maturity  of  his  powers.  Critics 
were  not  favorable  to  Tennyson;  Leigh  Hunt  praised  him,  but 
Blackwood's  Magazine  treated  him  with  almost  as  much  brutality 
as  it  had  Keats  before.  The  poet’s  sensitiveness  may  account 
for  his  silence  for  nearly  ten  years.  Finally  the  two  volumes  of 
the  Poems  of  1842  — including  “Locksley  Hall,”  “Morte  d’Ar- 
thur,”  “Sir  Galahad,”  and  “Vision  of  Sin”  — established  him, 
next  to  the  aged  Wordsworth,  as  the  greatest  English  poet  of 
the  day.  Within  a few  years  the  book  reached  several  editions. 
In  1850,  the  year  of  the  publication  of  In  Mcmoriam,  Tennyson 
succeeded  Wordsworth  as  poet-laureate. 

All  four  items  are  of  the  first  edition.  Poems,  By  Two  Brothers 
is  of  the  large  paper  issue,  bound  in  red  levant  morocco  by 
Riviere.  The  Poems  of  1842  is  bound  in  brown  calf,  bearing  on 
each  side  the  arms  of  Francis  Darby  of  Colebrookdale,  a mem- 
ber of  the  Shropshire  iron  works  dynasty  founded  by  Abraham 
Darby  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century. 


82 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 


HE  bibliographies  of  Dickens  and  Thackeray  are  compli- 
cated affairs,  for,  as  is  generally  known,  these  great  Victorian 
novelists  originally  published  most  of  their  works  in  monthly 
installments  before  printing  them  in  book  form.  These  “parts," 
issued  in  green,  blue,  or  brown  wrappers,  usually  carried  nu- 
merous advertisements,  printed  in  full  sheets  or  on  inserted 
slips.  Each  of  these  constitutes  a “point,"  and  collectors  insist 
on  their  presence.  John  C.  Eckel’s  bibliography  was  a reliable 
guide  for  Dickens  until  the  more  complete  work  of  Thomas 
Hatton  and  Arthur  H.  Cleaver  superseded  it;  and  similarly, 
Thackeray’s  novels  must  be  checked  against  the  compendious 
list  of  Henry  Sayre  Van  Duzer.  Even  more  important  than  the 
advertisements  are  the  illustrations  — steel  engravings  and 
woodcuts,  which  were  often  mixed  with  lithographs.  It  takes 
a real  expert  to  detect  the  state,  and  appraise  the  quality,  of 
these  reproductions.  It  goes  without  saying  that  there  are  many 
misprints  and  broken  types  to  identify  the  earliest  copies. 

Mr.  Friedman’s  gift  includes  four  of  the  great  Dickens  novels. 
The  first  is  Dombey  and  Son.  “Began  Dombey : I performed  this 
feat  yesterday  — only  wrote  the  first  slip  — but  there  it  is,  and 
it  is  a plunge  straight  over  head  and  ears  into  the  story  ...,’’ 
the  novelist  breathlessly  reported  to  John  Forster  in  June  1846. 
Shortly  afterwards,  he  outlined  the  plot,  informing  his  friend 
that  he  would  slay  little  Paul  at  the  end  of  the  fifth  number. 
The  boy’s  death  caused  veritable  mourning  in  England.  At  the 
end  Dickens  justified  it  to  his  readers:  “If  any  of  them  have 
felt  a sorrow  in  one  of  the  principal  incidents  on  which  this  fic- 
tion turns,  I hope  it  may  be  a sorrow  of  that  sort  which  endears  the 
sharers  in  it,  one  to  another.  This  is  not  unselfish  in  me.  I may 
claim  to  have  felt  it,  at  least  as  much  as  anybody  else;  and  I 
would  fain  be  remembered  kindly  for  my  part  in  the  experience.” 
One  of  the  installments  turned  out  to  be  two  pages  short,  and 
as  there  was  no  time  for  further  correspondence,  Dickens,  then 
residing  in  Paris,  boarded  the  diligence  and  was  at  once  on  his 
way  to  London  to  supply  the  needed  copy.  At  other  times  when 
the  manuscript  turned  out  to  be  too  long,  he  asked  Forster  to 
cut  it  according  to  his  best  judgment. 

The  illustrations  gave  Dickens  no  end  of  trouble.  Hablot 


A GIFT  OF  RARE  BOOKS 


83 


Knight  Browne,  better  known  as  “Phiz,”  did  the  engravings, 
but  by  no  means  always  to  the  author’s  satisfaction.  Dickens 
was  particularly  “distressed”  by  the  cut  of  Mrs.  Pipchin  and 
Paul.  “It  is  so  frightfully  and  wildly  wide  of  the  mark,”  he  com- 
plained to  Forster.  “Good  Heaven!  In  the  commonest  and  most 
literal  construction  of  the  text,  it  is  all  wrong.  She  is  described 
as  an  old  lady,  and  Paul’s  ‘miniature  arm-chair’  is  mentioned 
more  than  once.  He  ought  to  be  sitting  in  a little  arm-chair 
down  in  the  corner  of  the  fireplace,  staring  up  at  her.  I can’t 
say  what  pain  and  vexation  it  is  to  be  so  utterly  misrepresented. 
I would  cheerfully  have  given  a hundred  pounds  to  have  kept 
this  illustration  out  of  the  book.”  It  is  safe  to  say  that  without 
the  novelist’s  comment  the  reader  would  hardly  discover  the 
difference.  Collectors  watch  the  plate  “On  the  Dark  Road,”  in 
the  eighteenth  number;  if  it  is  good,  the  other  thirty-nine  plates 
are  supposed  to  be  also  desirable. 

The  copy  now  presented  to  the  Library  — which  heretofore 
lacked  the  first  edition  of  the  work  — is  in  very  fine  condition. 
The  majority  of  the  parts  agree  in  every  detail  with  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  Hatton-Cleaver  bibliography.  Only  in  the  first, 
fourth,  sixth,  twelfth,  and  last  number  are  a few  advertisements 
lacking;  however,  the  “errata”  leaves  show  that  the  printing 
is  of  an  early  state. 

Bleak  House,  which  appeared  between  March  1852  and  Sep- 
tember 1853,  closely  followed  David  Copperfield,  and  was  even 
more  popular.  Dickens’s  attack  on  the  abuses  in  the  Courts  of 
Chancery  met  with  keen  sympathy  throughout  the  country. 
Of  the  first  number,  thirty  thousand  copies  were  sold,  and  the 
figure  soon  leaped  to  forty  thousand.  Phiz  designed  its  forty 
plates,  ten  of  them  in  two  sets.  These  latter  are  the  so-called 
“dark  plates.”  They  were  produced  by  a newly  invented  method : 
the  steel  was  first  ruled  with  fine  lines,  and  the  design  was 
etched  over  these;  after  that,  the  effect  of  light  and  shadow 
was  heightened  by  the  process  of  “stopping-out.”  Copies  in 
which  dark  plates  occur  are  considered  especially  desirable.  In 
part  nine,  in  the  seventeenth  plate,  “Visitors  to  a Shooting 
Gallery,”  Phiz  made  the  mistake  of  depicting  Grandmother 
Smallweed  instead  of  the  fair  Judy.  The  plate  had  to  be  can- 
celled and  remade;  the  tenth  number  therefore  contained  three 


84 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 


plates,  instead  of  the  customary  two.  Again,  the  parts  carried  a 
vast  number  of  advertisements.  Each  issue  had  sixteen  to 
twenty  pages  of  “Bleak  House  Advertiser,”  mostly  about  new 
books;  then  there  were  Norton’s  Camomile  Pills,  recommended 
for  stomach  complaints  or  indigestion;  Allsopp’s  Pale  or  Bitter 
Ale,  with  testimonials  from  scores  of  famous  doctors  and  pro- 
fessors; Infants’  Restoratives;  and,  most  important  of  all, 
guaranteed  cures  for  gout  and  rheumatism.  Almost  every  issue 
had  slips  advertising  Dickens’s  Household  Words  and  Marsland 
& Co.’s  Crochet  Cotton  with  patterns  for  mats,  doilies,  and 
macassars.  As  a careful  collation  shows,  the  copy  presented  to 
the  Library  has  all  the  “points” ; only  the  crochet  cotton  slip  gives 
some  trouble.  Since  the  Library  has  had  only  the  American  edi- 
tion of  the  work,  the  set  is  a welcome  addition. 

Dickens’s  next  novel,  Little  Dorrit , was,  like  the  Pickwick 
Papers,  an  attack  on  imprisonment  for  debt.  Instead  of  the  Fleet, 
the  Marshalsea  was  the  scene  of  a considerable  part  of  the  novel. 
The  first  number  appeared  in  December  1855.  Dickens  was  ex- 
ultant. “Little  Dorrit  has  beaten  even  Bleak  House  out  of  the 
field,”  he  wrote  to  Forster.  “It  is  a most  tremendous  start,  and 
and  I am  overjoyed  at  it.”  And  after  the  completion  of  the  work 
he  stated : “In  the  preface  to  Bleak  House  I remarked  that  I 
had  never  had  so  many  readers.  In  the  preface  to  its  next  suc- 
cessor, Little  Dorrit,  I have  still  to  repeat  the  same  words.” 
Yet  the  novel  has  been  criticised  as  not  up  to  the  best  talents 
of  its  author;  Forster  thought  that  there  was  a “want  of  ease 
and  coherence”  among  the  characters.  Of  the  forty  plates,  seven 
were  duplicated  by  the  new  method,  and  there  was  also  an 
eighth  “dark”  plate  without  duplication.  As  before,  a multitude 
of  advertisements  went  with  each  part.  The  Library  already 
has  a copy,  but  its  parts  are  bound  in  two  volumes,  with  the 
advertisements  lumped  together  at  the  end.  The  copy  now  re- 
ceived is  all  but  perfect. 

Little  Dorrit  was  Dickens’s  last  book  published  by  Bradbury 
& Evans ; Chapman  & Hall  were  his  publishers  for  nearly  every- 
thing he  wrote  afterwards.  In  the  next  few  years  appeared  A 
Tale  of  Two  Cities,  and  then  Great  Expectations ; Our  Mutual 
Friend . of  which  the  gift  includes  a copy,  was  issued  in  regular 
monthly  installments  between  May  1864  and  November  1865. 


A GIFT  OF  RARE  BOOKS 


85 


There  were  again  forty  illustrations,  but  this  time  they  were 
woodcuts,  designed  by  Marcus  Stone  and  engraved  by  Dalziel 
and  W.  T.  Green.  The  novel  was  very  popular,  although  Dick- 
ens wrote  it  under  adverse  circumstances,  harrassed  by  illness 
and  once  shaken  up  by  a railroad  accident. 

T 

«*-  HACKERAY  is  represented  by  two  novels,  The  Newcomes 
and  The  Virginians , both  in  twenty-four  monthly  numbers,  with 
full-page  illustrations  as  well  as  elaborate  initials  and  tail-pieces 
by  Richard  Doyle.  The  first  issue  of  The  Newcomes  appeared  in 
July  1853,  and  the  last  in  June  1855.  Thackeray,  as  was  his 
wont,  was  pessimistic  from  the  start.  “I  can’t  but  see  it  as  a repeti- 
tion of  past  performances,”  he  wrote  to  his  mother,  adding, 
“One  of  Dickens’s  immense  superiorities  over  me  is  the  great 
fecundity  of  his  imagination.”  Yet  the  novel  turned  out  well; 
Colonel  Newcome,  for  whom  Thackeray’s  step-father  served 
as  a model,  is  one  of  the  most  attractive  figures  in  English  fic- 
tion. When  told  by  an  American  friend  that  the  Colonel  was 
constructed  from  memories  of  Don  Quixote  and  Sir  Roger  de 
Coverley,  the  novelist  quickly  acquiesced.  “I  tried  to  make  him 
a creation  of  my  own,”  he  said,  “but  I was  conscious  all  the 
while  that  my  beloved  heroes  were  blending  in  my  mind.”  One 
of  the  characters  refers  to  the  time  “when  Mr.  Washington 
headed  the  American  rebels  with  a courage,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, worthy  of  a better  cause.”  The  sentence  caused  some 
excitement  in  America,  which  was  reported  in  the  London 
Times.  Thackeray  replied  with  a lengthy  explanation.  He  was 
talking,  he  wrote,  about  ’76,  which  could  hardly  be  an  issue  to 
1853.  “I  think,”  he  ended,  “the  cause  for  which  Washington 
fought  entirely  just  and  right,  and  the  Champion  the  very 
noblest,  purest,  bravest,  and  best  of  God’s  men.” 

The  steel-  and  wood-engravings  by  Doyle,  for  long  one  of 
the  chief  contributors  to  Punch , are  extremely  successful. 
Thackeray,  himself  no  mean  artist  and  frequently  an  illustrator 
of  his  own  books,  was  a close  friend  of  “Dicky”  Doyle,  whose 
talents  he  regarded  highly. 

The  Virginians , the  first  part  of  which  was  published  in  No- 
vember 1857,  was  written  after  Thackeray’s  American  tour. 


86 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

While  here,  he  visited  Fredericksburg  and  other  places  in  Vir- 
ginia, to  saturate  himself  in  the  atmosphere.  However,  no  more 
than  one-fifth  of  the  book  is  occupied  with  the  American  scene. 
Harry  and  George  Esmond,  the  two  grandsons  of  Henry  Es- 
mond, who  came  over  with  their  mother  to  take  possession  of 
the  family  estate,  are  the  heroes,  fighting  on  opposite  sides  in 
the  Revolutionary  War;  but  it  is  their  adventures  in  English 
society  that  constitute  the  main  events  of  the  novel.  Thackeray, 
often  ill,  had  great  difficulty  in  getting  the  work  under  way. 
“What  a horribly  stupid  story  I am  writing/’  he  exclaimed  to 
a friend,  “no  incident,  no  character,  no  go  left  in  this  dreary  old 
expiring  carcass.”  Unfortunately,  some  of  the  critics  shared  his 
opinion.  “I  hear,”  he  observed  to  Douglas  Jerrold,  “that  you 
have  said  The  Virginians  is  the  worst  novel  I ever  wrote.”  “You 
are  wrong,”  the  famous  author  of  Black-eyed  Susan  replied,  “I 
said  it  was  the  worst  novel  anybody  ever  wrote.”  Yet  the  work 
was  popular,  especially  in  America.  George  W.  Curtis  wished 
that  the  author  could  have  seen  “the  eager  circle  of  children, 
old  men,  and  maidens”  who  listened  to  the  monthly  parts  “with 
shouts  of  merriment  and  sometimes  even  a tear.”  The  forty 
plates  and  the  many  initials  and  tail-pieces  which  adorn  the 
novel  were  designed  by  Thackeray  himself. 

One  should  not  overlook  the  first-edition  copy,  in  the  original 
pink  boards,  of  The  Kickleburys  on  the  Rhine , signed  by  “Mr.  M. 
A.  Titmarsh,”  Thackeray’s  Christmas  book  for  1850,  illustrated 
with  fifteen  full-page  drawings  by  him.  It  is  a satire  on  the 
manners  of  Englishmen  abroad;  however,  this  delightful  liter- 
ary oddity  was  damned  by  the  Times,  which  considered  it  as 
“the  rinsings  of  a void  brain  after  the  more  important  concoc- 
tions of  the  expired  year.” 

The  novels  of  Disraeli  — and  he  wrote  nearly  a dozen  — are 
little  known  today.  Yet  they  were  widely  read  in  the  1830’s  and 
1840’s;  and  at  least  two  of  them,  Coningsby  and  Sybil,  deeply  in- 
fluenced the  course  of  English  politics.  A first-edition  copy  of 
Sybil,  published  in  three  volumes  in  1845,  is  included  in  Mr. 
Friedman’s  gift  (as  are  two  of  the  later  works,  Lothair  and  En- 
dymion , respectively  of  1870  and  1880).  Its  sub-title  is  “The  Two 
Nations”;  and  it  is  precisely  the  division  of  the  people  of  Eng- 
land into  the  rich  and  the  poor  that  is  the  subject  of  the  novel. 


A GIFT  OF  RARE  BOOKS 


87 


No  one  before  had  painted  the  degradation  of  the  agricultural 
laborers  and  factory  workers  in  such  stark  colors  and  with  so 
much  factual  realism.  In  Walter  Gerard,  one  of  the  leaders  of 
the  Chartists,  and  in  the  Earl  of  Marney,  the  ultra-reactionary 
landlord,  Disraeli  created  flesh-and-blood  representatives  of 
the  opposing  forces,  while  in  Charles  Egremont,  brother  of  the 
Earl,  he  delineated  the  figure  of  the  true  progressive.  The  task 
of  the  Crown  was,  according  to  him,  to  protect  the  people 
against  the  oligarchy;  and  in  the  alliance  of  the  masses  with  the 
right-minded  aristocracy  he  envisioned  the  program  of  the 
Young  England  Party.  His  “Tory  democracy”  Disraeli  based 
upon  the  theories  of  Bolingbroke,  whom  he  eloquently  defended 
in  several  chapters.  Sybil  is  eminently  a novel  of  ideas,  and  a 
very  brilliant  one;  but  beyond  this,  it  is  also  an  excellent  story, 
which  holds  one’s  interest  throughout  — as  the  present  writer, 
who  has  just  read  it,  may  testify. 

Only  three  more  volumes  will  be  mentioned,  mainly  for  their 
fine  bindings.  The  first  is  a copy  of  Giorgio  Baglivi’s  De  Praxi 
Medica,  printed  in  two  volumes  in  Rome  in  1702.  Baglivi  was  a 
famous  experimental  physician,  a disciple  of  Bacon,  who  fought 
against  the  superstitious  prejudices  of  his  profession.  The  work 
was  bound  for  Pope  Clement  XI,  whose  richly  gilded  coat-of- 
arms  is  engraved  on  each  side.  The  center  has  a fess  between  a 
mullet  of  six  points  and  triple  mound  at  the  base;  at  the  top  is 
a papal  tiara,  and  at  the  sides  are  cinctures  hanging.  The  second 
book  is  the  Principes  de  la  Piete  Chretienne  by  Blaise  Monestier, 
printed,  also  in  two  volumes,  at  Toulouse  in  1756.  Monestier,  a 
Jesuit  Father,  bitterly  opposed  the  Encyclopedists,  particularly 
d’Holbach.  The  book  was  bound  in  red  morocco  for  Louis  XV, 
whose  coat-of-arms,  with  three  fleur-de-lis  in  the  center  and 
a crown  at  the  top,  embellishes  each  side.  And  finally,  there 
is  a Latin  translation  of  the  first  nine  cantos  of  Klopstock’s 
Messiah , published  in  1770,  and  bound  for  Napoleon.  It  is  doubt- 
ful if  the  Emperor  ever  found  the  time,  or  the  inclination,  to  read 
the  German  epic,  especially  in  Latin;  but  there  is  his  coat-of-arms, 
with  the  spread-eagle  surrounded  by  an  imperial  toga. 

All  the  books  contain  Mr.  Friedman’s  book-plate : the  seven- 
branched  candlestick  of  the  Tabernacle,  with  the  mottoes  “Veri- 
tas” below  and  “To  thine  own  self  be  true”  above. 


Alcott’s  Search  for  the  Child 


By  SHERMAN  PAUL 

ALTHOUGH  he  outlived  his  contemporaries  and  at  last 
became  the  “dean”  of  the  Concord  School,  Bronson  Al- 
cott  still  had  difficulties  in  practicing  his  transcendental 
vocation.  It  was  bad  enough  in  the  1830’s,  when  the  divinity  of 
Jesus  wras  hotly  disputed,  to  exalt  the  teacher’s  profession  by 
proposing  that  he  make  Jesus  his  model  and  the  Gospel  his  text. 
Bad  enough  to  propose;  more  so,  when  this  pedagogue  from 
Connecticut,  who  believed  that  “nothing  is  complete  until  it  is 
enacted,”  set  about  for  the  better  part  of  a decade  to  put  his 
ideas  in  practice.  If  Boston  welcomed  him  at  first,  if  his  salary 
in  the  years  before  the  depression  of  1837  sometimes  reached 
that  of  the  minister,  he  was  ostracized  at  last  and  nearly  mobbed, 
forced  to  sell  all  the  fine  furnishings  of  his  school  including  his 
books,  and  reduced  to  a penury  of  spirit,  in  which  he  lamented, 
“I  am  an  Idea  without  hands.  I find  no  body  for  my  thought 
amidst  the  materials  of  this  age.”1 

This  was  the  crisis  of  his  life.  “The  untimeliness  of  genius,” 
he  wrote  in  retrospect,  “is  the  tragedy  of  life  . . .”  For  in  the 
spiritual  economy  of  the  transcendentalist,  inspiration  was  in- 
complete and  self-realization  as  well  as  social  usefulness  impos- 
sible without  the  materials  for  their  expression.  Never  again  to 
teach  a children’s  school  was  more  severe  than  the  failure  at 
Fruitlands.  The  first  volume  of  his  Conversations  with  Children  on 
the  Gospels,  the  fruit  of  Alcott’s  experiments  and  method,  ap- 
peared in  the  year  of  Emerson’s  Nature  and  for  the  most  part 
was  favorably  noticed.  But  by  1838,  after  the  publication  of  the 
second  volume  in  which  birth  was  discussed,  Alcott  became  a 
victim  of  the  press,  more  scurrilously  denounced  than  Emerson 
for  his  Divinity  School  Address,  because  the  immediate  charge 
was  indecency,  not  infidelity.  Unlike  Emerson,  Alcott  could  not 
do  what  Emerson  decided  was  best  for  himself.  He  could  not 
“leave  the  impractical  world  to  wag  its  own  way,  and  sit  apart 
and  write  . . . oracles  for  its  behoof.”2  And  Emerson  knew  this, 
having  noted  in  his  Journal  after  one  of  Alcott’s  early  visits  that 


88 


ALCOTT’S  SEARCH  FOR  THE  CHILD 


89 


“His  book  is  his  school,  in  which  he  writes  all  his  thoughts.”3 

More  than  Emerson,  and  more  than  Thoreau  with  his  private 
experiment  in  the  “higher  society”  of  Walden,  Alcott  was  a so- 
cial man  whose  gifts  were  graciousness  and  conversation,  whose 
materials  were  men,  women,  and  children,  and  whose  interests 
were  practical  and  ameliorative.  Like  his  Concord  friends,  he 
was  wholly  concerned  with  spiritual  regeneration,  but  his  faith 
in  education  was  proof  that  he  believed  in  more  immediate 
means.  In  reply  to  Emerson’s  advice,  he  wrote  in  his  Journal : 
“I  desire  to  see  my  Idea  not  only  a written , but  a spoken  and  an 
acted  Word  — a Word  Incarnate.”4  This  realization  of  thought 
Alcott  mastered  in  the  teaching  of  children,  who  became  his 
chief  vehicle;  and  he  oriented  the  transcendental  philosophy, 
which  he  had  discovered  at  the  same  time  as  Emerson,  to  this 
vocation. 

Judged  by  his  written  word,  even  by  the  best  of  his  Orphic 
Sayings,  Alcott  loses  his  force ; for  he  was  not  so  much  man 
thinking  as  man  teaching.  However,  in  character,  influence, 
steadfastness,  and  even  in  achievement,  he  was  worthy  of  his 
great  contemporaries.  It  is  unfair  to  dismiss  his  adventure  in 
idealism  on  the  grounds  that  he  was  a poor  provider,  or  to  mock 
him  by  calling  him  the  father  of  the  author  of  Little  Women.  In- 
stead, he  was,  as  Emerson  recognized,  the  embodiment  of  tran- 
scendentalism and,  as  Thoreau  wrote  in  Walden , “the  last  of  the 
philosophers  . . . the  man  of  the  most  faith  of  any  alive.”5  And 
even  Abigail  May  Alcott,  who  for  so  long  paid  the  cost  of  her 
husband’s  fidelity  to  his  ideas,  would  not  have  had  him  do  other- 
wise. “Faith  and  persistency  are  life’s  architects,”  Alcott  moral- 
ized in  Tablets,  and  he  had  them  abundantly.  For  how  could  he 
have  justified  himself  otherwise,  when,  at  the  end  of  his  life,  he 
wrote  opprobriously  of  “Such  idlers  as  on  others’  earnings  live”? 
He  at  any  rate,  was  never  an  idler,  and  having  an  aim,  labored 
in  the  lean  years,  wrote  out  his  monumental  diary,6  and  tried, 
in  gardening  and  conversation,  to  yoke  his  idealism  to  “its 
harness  of  uses.” 

M ORE  than  any  other  American  transcendentalist,  Bron- 
son Alcott  took  Wordsworth  seriously:  he  enacted  the  philoso- 


90 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

phy  of  the  Ode  on  Intimations  of  Immortality . In  his  search  for  the 
object  most  closely  corresponding  to  the  divine,  Alcott  came  by 
way  of  infant  and  elementary  school  teaching,  his  philosophical 
immersion  at  Germantown,  and  the  study  of  the  psychological 
behavior  of  his  daughters,  to  a lifelong  dedication  to  the  child. 
Perhaps  the  popular  conception  of  his  innocence  and  naivete 
expresses  this  devotion,  for  he  was  always  able  to  enter  easily 
the  world  of  the  child.  Children  were  his  fit  audience,  always 
welcoming  the  allegory  of  Pilgrim  s Progress.  Pie  preferred  them 
to  carping  adults : they  mirrored  for  him  the  spiritual  state  that 
the  adult  had  forfeited  by  contact  with  debasing  material  affairs.7 
In  them,  he  sought  a purity  similar  to  that  Thoreau  saw  reflected 
in  Walden  Pond. 

But  although  Alcott  appreciated  Thoreau’s  employment,  Walden 
would  have  been  an  inadequate  symbol  for  him.  Believing  in  the 
Plotinian  “doctrine  of  lapse,”  he  did  not  find  in  nature  the  high- 
est expression  of  spirit.  Nature,  to  him,  was  the  furthest  issue 
of  spirit  and  an  expositor  of  the  divine  mind,  as  it  was  for  Emer- 
son and  Thoreau;  but  it  was  an  imperfect  expositor,  in  need  of 
man's  transforming  energies.  Nature  was  lapsed  spirit,  capable 
perhaps  of  reflecting  in  its  objects  the  sensualism  of  lapsed 
man,  but  it  was  incapable  of  reflecting  the  highest  ideas,  those 
of  divine  purity  and  spirituality.  “Nature,”  Alcott  wrote,  “does 
not  contain  the  Personal  man  . . . [that  is]  the  mind  with  the 
brute  omitted  . . . Nature  is  sufficient  for  the  creature,  but  per- 
son alone  for  man,  without  whose  immanency  and  inspirations, 
man  were  heartless  and  worshipless.” 

In  contrast  to  Thoreau,  Alcott  desired  to  complete  Nature 
“by  converting  the  wild  into  the  human,”  to  fill  out  the  impro- 
visations of  Nature  with  the  arts  of  adornment  and  idealization. 
For  this  reason  gardens  and  orchards  seemed  to  him  the  “sym- 
bols of  civility,”  the  true  humanization  of  Nature.  They  united 
man  and  Nature,  not  only  to  the  end  for  which  Thoreau  went  to 
Nature,  but  to  the  end  that  Nature  herself  became  spiritualized. 
“By  mingling  his  mind  with  nature,”  Alcott  explained,  “and  so 
transforming  the  landscape  into  his  essence.  Man  generates  the 
homestead,  and  opens  a country  to  civilization  and  the  arts.”  The 
woods,  once  “melancholy  and  morose,  standing  in  their  loneli- 
ness,” were  to  be  “meliorated.”  For  it  was  in  gardens  and  or- 


ALCOTT’S  SEARCH  FOR  THE  CHILD 


9* 


chards,  not  forests  or  cities,  that  for  Alcott  human  history  be- 
gan : adorning  his  homestead,  man  made  it  the  fitting  place  for 
the  family,  for  the  nurture  of  the  Child.  Going  beyond  Words- 
worth, Alcott  wrote : 

Childhood  is  greater  than  Nature.  It  teemeth  with  Ideas  for 
which  Nature  proffereth  no  image.  It  is  above  Nature  — yea, 
above  man  — for  yet  unfallen,  unbeguiled,  it  is  an  angel  and  en- 
joyeth  the  beatific  countenance  of  the  Celestial  Father  in  Heaven 
— even  the  selfsame  face  that  Nature  doth  but  dimly  shadow 
forth  to  the  external  sense  !8 

And  he  insisted  that  the  true  glory  of  the  state  was  to  maintain 
the  pristine  brilliance  of  this  symbol,  in  which  he  saw  the  fulfill- 
ment of  his  life-long  search  — to  discover  in  the  untarnished 
mirror  of  the  child  his  own  untarnished  self;  to  find  in  the  child 
the  image  of  the  perfect  and  complete  man,  and  the  origin  of 
the  laws  of  thought.  His  work  was,  as  he  put  it,  ‘"this  chase  of 
myself,”  a chase  that  all  the  transcendentalists  undertook,  some 
like  Emerson  in  alter-egos  and  representative  friends,  some  like 
Thoreau  in  Nature.9 

In  spite  of  his  constant  idealism,  Alcott  experienced  the  de- 
jection that  Thoreau  called  decay.  With  him  it  was  the  inevitable 
lapse  of  adulthood.  “Are  we  to  be  left  orphans,”  he  asked,  “when 
taken  from  nature’s  arms,  robbed  of  all  that  made  life  desirable 
before?”  Are  we  to  “despair  of  maintaining  the  virtues  we  es- 
poused so  eagerly  in  our  youth?”  Were  the  knowledge  of  sin 
and  mature  self-consciousness  lapses  “out  of  . . . paradise?”  Not, 
he  maintained,  if  we  are  “faithful  to  the  beautiful  vision”  of 
children : “Children  save  us,”  he  wrote. 

But,  as  with  Emerson  and  Thoreau,  the  former  powers  were 
to  be  saved  by  conscious  endeavor,  by  the  control  of  severe 
discipline.  Alcott’s  case,  when  viewed  out  of  this  context,  be- 
came the  ludicrous  failure  to  live  on  nuts  and  apples  at  Fruit- 
lands.  This  Pythagorean  asceticism  was  in  reality  an  attempt  “to 
cleanse”  the  body,  to  purify  the  soul  through  its  instruments, 
to  prepare  himself  for  the  self-renewal  of  communion  with  children. 
In  the  good  gifts  of  children,  he  poetized,  “we  hopeful  see  / The 
fairer  selves  we  fain  would  be.”  In  the  mysteries  of  childhood, 


92 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

he  believed,  “he  / Must  live  twice  that  would  God’s  face  see.” 
Thus,  Alcott  came  to  believe  that  the  process  of  inspiration  was 
social,  that  lacking  the  schoolroom  the  family  was  the  per- 
fect sphere  for  its  practice.  At  first  merely  an  observer  of  the 
growth  of  his  children,  he  soon  saw  in  them  the  image  for 
which  he  was  seeking.  It  was  his  intention  to  take  them  to  his 
native  village,  to  his  mother’s.  “There,”  he  explained, 

amidst  the  wilderness  of  Nature  and  the  scenes  of  my  own  mind’s 
formation,  can  I be  to  them,  for  a while,  the  father  that  I image  in 
my  Ideal.  Childhood’s  young  life  would  revisit  me.  Surrounded  by 
the  emblems  of  my  germinating  sentiments  and  fancies,  I should 
bring  forth  that  which,  when  distant,  lieth  latent  in  my  being.  I 
should  return  to  the  being  as  well  as  to  the  scenes  of  my  childhood, 
and  with  theirs  write  off,  in  living  words,  types  of  the  things  and 
thoughts  that  quickened  my  being  — the  history  of  my  own  life  — 
with  theirs.  The  father  shall  be  seen  in  the  son’s  forming  being; 
the  language  of  his  thoughts  and  sentiments,  in  the  imagery  that 
surrounds  his  paternal  home.10 

In  his  children  — and  in  his  homeward  journey,  which  he  made 
several  times  as  he  grew  older  — he  had  found  the  perfect  sym- 
bols of  his  desires.  The  children  became  more  than  his  lan- 
guage ; by  sympathizing  writh  them,  he  was  “reborn  into  the 
same  blessed  Kingdom  that  he  hath  not  as  yet  died  out  of.” 
“Of  the  various  media  of  Revelation,”  Alcott  wrote,  “the 
child  is,  perhaps,  the  most  significant  of  all.”  The  word  “sig- 
nificant” had  here  all  the  weight  of  the  transcendentalist’s  be- 
lief in  correspondential  meaning;  and  for  Alcott  the  child  rep- 
resented all  the  “exponents”  of  creation:  origin,  growth,  completion. 
“The  history  of  a child,”  he  thought,  “including  its  inner  as  well 
as  outer  movements,  with  its  relations  both  spiritual  and  ma- 
terial and  the  varying  phenomena  of  the  sensual  and  the  super- 
sensual  — this  Would  be  a Revelation  indeed  . . .”  In  the  life  of 
Jesus  he  saw  the  history  of  the  adult;  and  in  the  Gospels  he 
found  an  example  of  a record  of  “both  his  inner  and  outer  ex- 
perience.” But  great  as  they  were,  to  him  these  did  not  promul- 
gate “the  revelation  of  childhood”  — “The  ‘eyes  have  not  seen 
nor  the  hands  yet  handled  the  Word  of  God’  as  presented  in 
infancy.”  And  with  characteristic  assurance  he  added:  “To  the 
penning  of  this  gospel,  let  me  apply  myself.”11 


ALCOTT’S  SEARCH  FOR  THE  CHILD 


93 


His  doctrine  — leaving  aside  here  his  pre-psychoanalytic 
theories  of  genesis12  — began  in  the  child’s  oneness  with  both 
God  and  Nature,  the  extremes,  he  said,  that  fallen  men  had  to 
rejoin.  To  “repossess”  the  idea  of  his  own  divinity,  however, 
man  had  to  use  Nature.  Here  lapse  was  necessary  in  man’s 
spiritual  ascent,  but  only  after  he  had  regained  the  child’s  in- 
born gift  of  regarding  “all  outward  things  as  emblems  and  ex- 
ponents of  its  own  inner  being!”  Then,  he  could  “descend”  into 
Nature  and  assume  the  burdens  of  its  spiritualization.  But  un- 
less he  had  repossessed  his  Idea  he  could  not  carry  out  this 
transcendental  pilgrim’s  progress  of  subduing  Nature  to  himself. 

If  man  and  Nature  were  one  ideally,  and  if  in  his  unfallen  child- 
like state  he  was  wed  to  Nature  with  “infinite  sympathies,”  his 
lapse  forced  him  out  of  the  garden  naked  and  alone  and  without 
the  hope  of  renewal.  Once  the  “Idea  of  Spirit  dies  out  of  the 
Consciousness,”  Alcott  wrote,  “Man  is  shorn  of  his  glories.” 
In  language  as  full  of  horror  as  Edwards,  he  described  the  lot 
of  the  unregenerate : 

Nature  grows  over  him.  He  mistakes  Images  for  Ideas,  and  thus 
becomes  an  Idolater.  He  deserts  the  Sanctuary  of  the  Indwelling 
Spirit,  and  worships  at  the  throne  of  the  Outward.13 

And  this  was  the  condition  in  which  Alcott  found  his  contempo- 
raries. Having  been  starved  of  the  sense  of  the  beautiful  in 
childhood,  they  wallowed  in  inevitable  materialism : “the  Di- 
vine Idea  of  a Man  seems  to  have  died  out  of  our  conscious- 
ness.” There  followed  a low  estimate  of  human  nature,  account- 
ing for  the  want  of  great  men  and  institutions,  and,  what  was 
worse,  a low  estimate  of  the  genius  of  the  child.  This  genius 
Alcott  regarded  as  “the  prime  endowment  of  humanity.”  But 
it  was  poorly  cherished,  blunted,  and  destroyed  in  bare  and 
lifeless  cities.  No  longer  — he  lamented  — did  men  seek  their 
salvation  in  the  leadings  of  little  children,  but  constraining 
their  imaginations  led  them  and  themselves  into  the  valley  of 
despair. 

He  endeavored,  therefore,  to  awaken  a new  sense  of  “the 
divinity  of  the  child.”  Fie  attempted  to  do  what  Margaret  Ful- 
ler suggested  in  “The  Great  Lawsuit” : “Could  we  give  a de- 
scription of  the  child  that  is  lost,  he  would  be  found.”  Conversa- 


94 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

tions  with  Children  was  his  demonstration  of  what  he  had  fer- 
vently recorded  in  Psyche,  that  to  the  “faithful  observer  of  the 
celestial  phenomena”  the  child  is  a “sign,”  that  the  “child  is  no 
fallen,  but  a pure  angel.”  If  he  was  at  first  a Lockean  remedying 
the  physical  aspects  of  the  schoolroom,  his  innovations  had 
now  been  directed  to  spiritual  culture : along  with  the  introduc- 
tion of  writing  desks,  slates,  and  space  for  exercise,  he  had  em- 
phasized affection  as  a teaching  principle.  And  if  as  an  environ- 
mentalist he  had  put  the  blame  for  evil  on  conditions  rather 
than  on  the  nature  of  the  child,  it  was  not  long  after  watching  little 
Anna  and  Louisa  that  he  saw  the  creative  elan  of  the  Coleridgean 
reason  in  their  unfolding  consciousness.  He  could  no  longer 
conceive  of  a “child’s  acquirements  as  originating  in  nature, 
dating  from  his  birth  into  his  body  . . .”;  he  had  come  so  far 
that  to  believe  this  was  “an  atheism.” 

TP  RAILING  clouds  of  glory,  the  child  came  with  the  gifts 
of  inspiration  and  imagination  that  the  ageing  transcendentalist 
realized  he  had  once  possessed  freely  and  unconsciously,  and 
now  could  have  only  rarely  and  at  great  cost.  From  an  insight 
into  this  dilemma,  he  created  his  vision  of,  and  the  means  for, 
social  regeneration : if  the  world  had  not  starved  the  child’s 
imagination,  if  he  had  remained  in  Nature  to  which  he  sym- 
pathetically responded,  his  “essential  humanity”  would  not 
have  withered.  Then  the  child  would  represent  “the  complete 
man,”  who  easily  spanned  the  heaven  of  inspiration,  the  mid- 
world of  reason,  and  the  earth  of  sense  and  fancy;  and  who  was 
naturally  disposed,  in  his  symbolic  use  of  Nature,  to  create  an 
ideal  world  of  them. 

When  driven  from  his  “Temple”  for  practising  this  gospel, 
Alcott  applied  it  to  his  own  children;  and  having  been  balked 
by  parental  opposition,  set  out  on  his  long  pilgrimage  to  awaken 
in  the  adults  a sense  of  human  culture.  The  family  became  his 
ideal14;  and  Fruitlands  was  his  experiment  to  plant  a Family 
Order.  He  may  have  been  a grand  failure,  but  he  was  truly  a 
father  of  little  women.15  Pure  himself,  and  having  in  children 
the  means  of  inspiration,  he  was  sustained  in  his  adventure  in 
idealism,  and  had  a right  to  write : 


ALCOTT’S  SEARCH  FOR  THE  CHILD 


95 


Not  Wordsworth’s  genius,  Pestalozzi’s  love, 

The  stream  have  sounded  of  clear  infancy. 

Baptismal  waters  from  the  Head  above 
These  babes  I foster  daily  are  to  me; 

I dip  my  pitcher  in  these  living  springs 
And  draw,  from  depths  below,  sincerity; 

Unsealed,  mine  eyes  behold  all  outward  things 
Arrayed  in  splendors  of  divinity. 

What  mount  of  vision  can  with  mine  compare?  . . .l6 

{First  editions  of  Alcott’s  books  have  been  placed  on  view 
in  the  Treasure  Room.) 


Notes 

1.  Quotations  are  numerous  in  this  essay  because  the  writer  desired  to 
reproduce  Alcott’s  thoughts  in  his  own  words.  References,  however,  will  be 
given  only  for  extracted  passages. 

2.  The  Loiters  of  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  ed.  Ralph  L.  Rusk,  New  York 
1939,  H,  75- 

3.  The  Journals  of  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  ed.  E.  W.  Emerson  and  W.  E. 
Forbes,  Boston  1909-1914,  III,  559. 

4.  Cited  in  Dorothy  McCuskey,  Bronson  Alcott,  Teacher,  New  York  1940,  112. 

5.  Walden  and  Other  Writings,  ed.  Brooks  Atkinson,  New  York  1937,  p.  240. 

6.  Alcott’s  diary,  in  fifty  manuscript  volumes,  is  owned  by  Mr.  Frederic 
Wolsey  Pratt  of  Concord.  Odell  Shephard  published  a selection  in  The  Journals 
of  Bronson  Alcott,  Boston  1938. 

7.  One  reason  Alcott  preferred  the  West  to  the  East  was  that  in  the  West 
the  audiences  accepted  him  more  freely,  that  is,  in  a more  child-like  manner. 

8.  Psyche,  or  the  Breath  of  Childhood,  Boston  1835-1836,  425-26.  This  is 
the  first  manuscript  version,  owned  by  Mr.  Frederic  Wolsey  Pratt.  Portions 
are  printed  in  Kenneth  W.  Cameron’s  Emerson  the  Essayist,  Raleigh,  N.  C. 
1945,  2 vols. 

9.  Margaret  Fuller  seems  to  have  shared  Alcott’s  need  for  children  al- 
though she  did  not  erect  a “system.”  See  Memoirs  of  Margaret  Fuller  Ossoli, 
ed.  by  R.  W.  Emerson,  W.  H.  Channing,  J.  F.  Clarke,  Boston,  1859,  II, 
pp.  147,  272-273,  278,  293,  300,  301,  304,  334.  Alcott,  especially  after  meeting 
W.  T.  Harris,  tried,  I think,  to  systematize  his  thought  in  Tablets  and  Con- 
cord Days. 

10.  Psyche,  112. 

11.  Margaret  Fuller  records  Alcott  as  saying:  “Seing  that  other  re- 
deemers have  imperfectly  fulfilled  their  tasks,  I have  sought  a new  way  . . . 
They  began  with  men;  I will  begin  with  babes.  They  began  with  the  world; 
I will  begin  with  the  family.  So  I preach  the  Gospel  of  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury.” Memoirs,  I,  171-72. 


96 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 


12.  See  Tablets,  Boston  1868,  187  ff;  and  James  Freeman  Clark,  ed.  by  E.  E. 
Hale,  Boston  1891,  2 for  an  example  of  the  significance  of  Wordsworth’s  Ode. 
Clarke  prefaces  his  account  of  his  ancestry  with:  “Wordsworth’s  ‘Ode  on  the 
Intimations  of  Immortality’  contains  a truth  which  our  experience  must  con- 
firm. The  germs  of  all  that  we  are  begin  to  unfold  in  our  childhood.  Those 
shadowy  recollections  are  the  masterlights  of  our  after-being.  The  truths 
which  awake  then  never  perish.  The  impressions  then  made  on  the  soul  un- 
derlie all  others,  and  determine  largely  our  future  course.” 

13.  The  Doctrine  and  Discipline  of  Human  Culture,  Boston  1836,  21.  Theo- 
dore Parker  made  a similar  attack  on  sensationalism  in  A Discourse  of  Matters 
Pertaining  to  Religion,  Boston  1842,  50-52,  451. 

14.  See  also  Margaret  Fuller  on  this  ideal  in  Memoirs,  II,  pp.  84,  121. 

15.  Margaret  Fuller  wrote  that  “He  [Alcott]  views  this  relation  truly.” 
Memoirs,  II,  p.  52. 

16.  Sonnets  and  Canzonets,  Boston  1882,  69. 


The  Anarchiad  and  the  Massachusetts  Centinel 


By  ABE  C.  RAVITZ 

DURING  the  critical  years  of  1786-7  the  conservative 
forces  in  American  politics  saw  their  position  jeopardized 
by  an  increasing  populism.  Federalists  of  a literary  turn 
soon  rallied  to  defend  the  tenets  of  their  party,  and  the  most 
competent  among  them  were  the  Connecticut  Wits,  who  en- 
tered upon  a collaborative  work.  The  end  result  was  The  An- 
archiad, “a  New  England  poem,”  which  is  all  but  forgotten  to- 
day.1 The  poem,  written  by  Lemuel  Hopkins,  David  Hum- 
phreys, Joel  Barlow,  and  John  Trumbull,  was  presented  in  a 
novel  manner.  It  was  supposed  to  be  an  ancient  epic,  “lately 
unearthed”  by  a Society  of  Connecticut  Antiquarians,  and  “ex- 
cerpts” were  presented  in  a series  of  twelve  papers  entitled 
“American  Antiquities”  in  The  New  Haven  Gazette  and  the  Con- 
necticut Magazine.  Included  was  a running  prose  commentary. 
Since  the  affairs  of  Anarch,  the  personification  of  black  chaos, 
“were  in  so  thriving  a posture  in  Massachusetts  and  Rhode- 
Island,”2  the  authors  concentrated  their  satiric  efforts  on  these 
states,  in  order  to  present  living  examples  of  the  evils  of  populism 
to  the  people  of  Connecticut. 

Certainly  Shays’s  Rebellion  received  little  sympathy  from  the 
Boston  press;  but  most  vehement  in  the  attack  upon  this  march 
of  debtors  was  Major  Benjamin  Russell’s  Massachusetts  Centinel. 
With  the  publication  of  “American  Antiquities,  No.  1,”  a liaison 
was  established  between  this  newspaper  and  The  Nezv  Haven 
Gazette  and  the  Connecticut  Magazine.  The  Centinel  carried  full  re- 
prints of  each  number  of  the  satire  and,  in  addition,  published 
collateral  material  relating  to  the  authors. 

The  very  first  number  of  the  “Antiquities”  saw  David  Hum- 
phreys and  Lemuel  Hopkins  bitterly  attack  the  rebels.  In  a 
“vision”  of  the  troubled  state  of  Massachusetts,  a passage  from 
The  Anarchiad  reveals  this  situation: 

Chaos,  Anarch  old,  asserts  his  sway, 

And  mobs  in  myriads  blacken  all  the  way: 


97 


98  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

O’er  Concord  fields  the  bands  of  discord  spread, 

Sweep  their  dark  files,  and  shade  with  rags  the  plain. 
Lo,  the  Court  falls ; th’affrighted  Judges  run, 


Law  sinks  before  thy  [Anarch’s]  uncreating  word; 

Thy  hand  unbars  th’unfathom’d  gulph  of  fate, 

And  deep  in  darkness  whelms  the  new-born  stated 

The  number  concluded  with  an  invitation  to  “the  several  printers 
of  Massachusetts”  to  republish  the  work.  The  Centinel  reprinted 
“American  Antiquities,  No.  i”  six  days  later,  in  an  apparently 
successful  venture.  Shortly  afterward,  Russell  used  the  satire  as 
the  basis  for  another  “fair  vision”  of  conditions  in  his  state.  Un- 
der the  title  of  “Original  Poetry”  he  printed  some  sixty  lines  of 
verse  in  his  newspaper  for  December  6,  1786,  among  them : 

Now  clouds  and  darkness  spread  their  loud  alarms, 

And  rouse  the  desp’rate  to  rebellious  arms ; 

Justice,  her  balance  now  resigns  to  fate; 

Discord  and  envy,  discontent  create  . . .4 

Russell  dated  these  couplets  “September,  1786,”  thus  placing 
them  a month  ahead  of  the  Plumphreys  and  Hopkins  effort.  He 
also  added  a note  stating  that  the  poem  was  “mislaid,”  thereby 
explaining  the  late  insertion.  Although  no  one  can  disprove 
Russell’s  claim  concerning  the  date,  one  can  seriously  doubt  the 
veracity  of  the  statement.  The  idea  of  the  “vision,”  the  tonal 
quality,  and  the  diction  are  identical  in  both  pieces;  the  usage 
of  the  term  “fate”  is  also  the  same  in  each.  But  what  was  the 
purpose  behind  the  claim?  The  newspaper  poets  of  the  era  were 
only  too  willing  to  document  their  sources,  as  Humphreys  and 
Hopkins  did,  by  acknowledging  their  indebtedness  to  Pope,5 
and  it  seems  evident  that  the  Centinel  adapted  the  “Antiquities, 
No.  1”  in  order  to  provide  more  copy  on  this  popular  topic. 

In  late  December  1786  The  Massachusetts  Centinel  reprinted  an 
article  from  the  London  Times , which  vehemently  denounced 
the  economic  situation  in  America  and  concluded  that  “the 
making  of  Paper  Money  a legal  tender  in  the  American  States, 
is  most  evidently  done  to  injure  foreign  creditors.”6  The  Wits 
promptly  took  up  the  theme  of  foreign  creditors  in  the  fourth 
number  of  their  satire.  The  debtors,  according  to  them  : 


THE  AN  ARC  HI  AD 


99 


Sing  choral  songs  while  conq’ring  mobs  advance, 
And  blot  the  debts  to  Holland,  Spain,  and  France; 


Lo,  the  poor  Briton,  who,  corrupted,  sold, 

Sees  God  in  courts,  or  hears  him  chink  in  gold, 


Tho’  plagu’d  with  debts,  with  rage  of  conquest  curst, 

In  rags  and  tender-acts  he  puts  no  trust  . . .7 

Russell,  of  course,  did  not  wait  long  before  reprinting  the  “An- 
tiquities, No.  4.” 

Two  minor  broadsides  and  two  poems  relating  to  The  An- 
archiad,  and  mentioning  the  poets  by  name,  were  reprinted  in  the 
Centinel  soon  afterwards.8  Then,  after  reprinting  Humphrey’s 
poem  on  the  “Genius  of  America,”  Russell  reprinted  a prose 
tract  on  the  same  subject  from  The  New  Haven  Gazette.  This  in- 
cluded an  extract  from  Barlow’s  Columbiad  which  was  then  “in 
the  press”  and  which  sang  of  Trumbull  who  “lead[s]  the  train,” 
“daring”  Dwight  hailed  by  “the  epick  muse,”  and  Humphreys, 
the  “favorite”  of  Washington.9  Furthermore,  this  article  set 
forth  the  literary  nationalism  which  probably  provided  the  Wits 
with  the  germ  of  their  treatment  of  the  foreign  critics  of  Ameri- 
can achievement  in  “American  Antiquities,  No.  12.”  It  stated 
that  among  the  “literati”  in  Europe  the  idea  had  become  preva- 
lent that  “almost  every  species  of  animal  and  vegetable  life  has 
degenerated  by  being  transported  across  the  Atlantick  to  this 
country.”10  And  the  final  number  of  the  “Antiquities”  also  de- 
plored that  the  “learned  sages”  abroad  found  that  “in  this  part 
of  the  globe  the  animal  and  vegetable  creation  are  far  inferior” 
and  “that  man  has  wonderfully  degenerated”  here.11  Indeed  the 
readers  of  the  Centinel  were  able  to  keep  in  close  touch  with  the 
activities  of  their  favorite  poets. 

Russell  also  added  his  own  footnotes  to  the  Centinel  reprints 
of  “American  Antiquities,  No.  7 and  No.  8.”  He  hoped  by  them 
to  clarify  allusions  that  might  prove  obscure  to  Boston  readers. 
He  identified  “Wronghead”  as  “one  of  the  paper-money,  anti- 
federal  geniuses  of  Connecticut”;  and  described  “Wimble”  as 
“a  person,  whose  political  and  moral  character  is  supposed  to 
bear  a strong  resemblance  of  William  W-lli-ms,  Esq.  Chief  Jus- 
tice of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  . . . &c.  &c.  &c.  &c.”  He  also 
explained  that  “some  of  these  enigmatical  &c.  mean  an  anti- 


100  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

federal  paper  money  man;  pedantick  blockhead,  and  other  apel- 
latives  their  inseparable  attendants.”12  These  footnotes  un- 
doubtedly were  fully  approved  of  by  the  Hartford  group,  since 
they  preserved  the  savor  and  purpose  of  their  poem  in  remark- 
ably fine  fashion. 

With  the  relaxation  of  events,  the  activity  of  the  Wits  fell  off 
noticeably.  Between  April  5 and  September  13,  1787,  only  the 
last  four  numbers  of  their  work  appeared.  The  Constitutional 
Convention  at  Philadelphia  had  cast  a mood  of  sobriety  over  the 
poets  — a temper  evident  in  No.  10  of  the  series.  Their  rela- 
tive inactivity  seems  to  have  disturbed  Russell.  His  readers  no 
doubt  desired  to  see  more  of  the  writings  of  the  Hartford  group, 
and  so  he  attempted  to  prod  the  poets  on.  In  April  he  printed 
some  octosyllabic  couplets  supposedly  advising  “a  grieved  poli- 
tician” to  wreak  vengeance  on  his  opponents : 

But  chiefly  Hudibrastick  writers, 

For  they  are  found  most  valiant  fighters, 

And  wondrous  deeds  perform  sometimes, 

By  means  of  their  satirick  rhymes ; 

Let  these  attack  your  honest  foes 
With  literary  bangs  and  blows 
Expose  their  weakness  and  their  folly, 

Their  character,  and  name  too  fully, 

And  if  they  have  no  faults  or  vice, 

You  then  must  make  it  up  with  lies  . . .I3 

As  this  bit  of  gentle  pressure  passed  unheeded,  Russell  was 
back  in  three  weeks  with  “Shays : A Rebel  Eclogue,”  which 
was  introduced  by  a statement  that  “the  following  Eclogue  ap- 
peareth  to  have  been  written  during  some  particular  period  of 
the  reign  of  Anarch,  but  hath  long  remained  hidden  from  the 
eyes  of  the  curious,  insomuch  that  . . . the  learned  society  of 
Antiquarians  in  Connecticut  have  said  nothing  thereupon. 
Could  they  throw  some  light  upon  this  subject,  great  and  mani- 
fold would  be  the  obligations  due  them  from  all  the  lovers  of 
polite  letters.”14  However,  the  “mob”  had  by  then  replaced 
Governor  Bowdoin  with  John  Hancock,  who  had  promised  to 
deviate  from  the  harsh  policy  of  his  predecessor  in  his  treat- 
ment of  the  rebels  who  were  under  control.  To  re-introduce 
the  subject  would  have  been  foolish  — a fact  which  the  poets 
fortunately  recognized. 


THE  ANARCHIAD 


ioi 


Yet  only  eight  days  before  the  appearance  of  the  last  num- 
ber of  “American  Antiquities,”  Russell  printed  a mock  epistle 
from  “Shays  to  Shattuck,”  in  which  the  chief  insurgent  was 
made  to  say : 

These  evils  (I  speak  with  shame  and  contrition) 

These  flow  from  the  sorrowful  stream  of  sedition ; 

That  stream,  in  description,  to  shew  you  aright, 

Is  a subject  for  Barlow,  M’Fingal,  or  Dwight  . . .I5 

It  is  even  a subject  for  America’s  top  painters,  the  verse  goes 
on  to  tell.  Perhaps  the  purpose  behind  this  final  shot  was  to 
instill  a seed  in  one  of  the  Wits  that  would  eventually  bear 
fruit  in  the  form  of  a mock-epic  on  the  Massachusetts  insurrections. 


Notes 

1.  Luther  G.  Riggs  (editor),  introduction  to  The  Anarchiad,  New  Haven, 
1861. 

2.  “American  Antiquities,  No.  2”  in  The  New  Haven  Gazette  and  the 
Connecticut  Magazine,  November  2,  1786. 

3.  The  New  Haven  Gazette  and  the  Connecticut  Magazine,  October  26,  1786. 

4.  The  Massachusetts  Centinel,  December  6,  1786.  The  Boston  Public  Li- 
brary has  files  of  both  The  New  Haven  Gazette  and  the  Connecticut  Magazine 
and  The  Massachusetts  Centinel. 

5.  Near  the  end  of  the  first  paper  of  The  Anarchiad,  the  authors  wrote 
that  “the  celebrated  English  poet,  Mr.  Pope,  has  proved  himself  a noted  pla- 
giarist, by  copying  the  preceding  ideas,  and  even  the  couplets  almost  entire 
into  his  famous  poem  called  the  Dunciad.” 

6.  The  Massachusetts  Ccntinal,  December  23,  1786. 

7.  The  New  Haven  Gazette,  January  11,  1787. 

8.  “New  Year’s  Verse,”  January  10,  and  “The  Newsboys  — An  Eclogue” 
on  January  13,  “The  Soliloquy  of  Spectator,”  February  14,  and  “The  Female 
Patriot,”  February  24. 

9.  The  Massachusetts  Ccntinal,  February  10,  1787.  The  passage  is  from 
Book  VIII  of  Barlow’s  work. 

10.  Ibid. 

11.  The  Nezv  Haven  Gazette,  September  13,  1787. 

12.  The  Massachusetts  Ccntinal,  April  4 and  April  11,  1787. 

13.  Ibid.,  April  25,  1787. 

14.  Ibid.,  May  19,  1787.  The  work  is  signed  “Antiquary.” 

15.  Ibid , September  5,  1787. 


Frank  W.  Benson,  Painter  and  Etcher 

By  ARTHUR  W.  HEINTZELMAN 

FRANK  W.  BENSON,  famous  internationally-known 
painter  and  etcher,  a great  leader  in  the  artistic  and  edu- 
cational fields  of  art,  died  on  November  14,  1951,  in  his 
eighty-ninth  year.  His  students,  many  of  whom  are  noted 
artists  today,  and  who  addressed  him  as  “Cher  Maitre,”  and 
friends  among  artists,  collectors,  and  connoisseurs  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic  mourn  his  passing. 

Mr.  Benson’s  rich  productive  years  and  the  breadth  of  his 
interests  did  much  to  create  and  perpetuate  spiritual  guidance 
to  his  fellow  man  through  a life  well  lived.  His  love  of  beauty 
and  nature,  and  his  ability  to  record  it,  were  gifts  possessed 
by  only  a chosen  few.  His  achievement  was  a tribute  to  three- 
score years  of  activity  on  canvas  and  copper  which  with  needle 
and  brush  commemorate  a lasting  accomplishment,  and  has 
been  recognized  the  world  over.  His  work  has  found  a per- 
manent place  in  the  museums  and  private  collections  of  two 
continents. 

Happily  Mr.  Benson  lived  to  see  his  own  work  reach  the 
zenith  of  full  recognition.  His  part  in  the  renaissance  of  engrav- 
ing at  the  turn  of  this  century  is  now  established  history.  His 
prints  of  bird  life  embody  the  sound  theories  of  a thorough 
artistic  background  supported  by  an  extraordinary  talent  that 
placed  him  in  the  high  esteem  of  his  contemporaries.  All  who 
knew  him  well  felt  his  sincerity,  the  depth  of  his  sensitive  aes- 
thetic nature,  and  the  inner  strength  of  his  convictions. 

As  a man  and  artist  Mr.  Benson  stood  out  prominently 
against  a background  of  troubled  years  of  confusion  and  doubt 
which  date  from  the  first  World  War.  His  work  emanated 
peace,  poetry,  spiritual  beauty,  and  inspiration,  which  blended 
with  his  technical  knowledge  into  a combination  of  rarest  at- 
tainment. 

A little  over  four  years  ago  the  Print  Department  of  the 
Boston  Public  Library  was  chosen  by  Mr.  Benson  as  the  place 
he  considered  most  suitable  to  deposit  his  personal  collection 


102 


“The  Marsh  Gunner  ” an  Etching  by  Frank  W . Benson 


103 


FRANK  W.  BENSON,  PAINTER  AND  ETCHER  105 


permanently.  He  wished  his  life’s  work  in  etching  and  drypoint 
to  fit  in  with  the  Library’s  pattern  of  a living  collection,  where 
his  prints  could  be  fully  appreciated  and  play  their  part  artistic- 
ally as  well  as  educationally  with  the  contemporary  masters  of 
England  and  France.  The  collection  of  approximately  450 
prints,  states,  and  drawings,  the  most  complete  in  existence, 
was  acquired  in  July  1947.  Since  that  time  it  has  been  studied 
constantly  by  students  and  collectors,  and  it  has  been  in  de- 
mand for  exhibition  purposes. 

In  studying  this  great  collection  one  cannot  but  feel  the 
knowledge  and  inspiration  exercised  in  the  creation  of  these 
fine  plates,  and  the  high  quality  of  the  interpretation  of  each 
individual  subject.  No  other  collection  of  Mr.  Benson’s  work 
contains  more  beauty  or  brilliance  in  printing.  The  late  plates, 
many  of  them  masterly,  possess  the  same  youthful  spirit  that 
guided  his  hand  in  earlier  experiments.  His  entrusting  the  Li- 
brary with  this  unique  collection  is  a tribute  to  its  Print  Depart- 
ment. The  Library  deems  it  an  honor  and  a privilege  to  be  cus- 
todians of  this  great  artist’s  work,  which  will  remain  a living 
thesis  through  which  he  will  speak  to  us  as  time  progresses. 

The  prominent  place  held  by  Mr.  Benson  in  the  graphic  arts 
has  done  much  in  securing  for  America  recognition  in  the  realm 
of  contemporary  prints.  His  plates  are  completely  defined  as  an 
artistic  medium.  All  manner  of  mediums  and  a combination  of 
them  are  employed  in  new  intentions  and  ideas.  Individualism 
is  nowhere  more  strongly  indicated  than  in  his  work.  He  was 
always  pure  in  both  medium  and  composition,  in  contrast  with 
the  camouflage  practice  employed  today  both  in  execution  and 
printing. 

Frank  Weston  Benson  was  born  at  Salem,  Massachusetts, 
on  March  24,  1862.  After  completing  his  studies  at  the  Salem 
High  School,  he  enrolled  in  the  School  of  Drawing  and  Paint- 
ing of  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts.  After  three  years  there 
he  went  to  Paris,  where  he  studied  at  the  Academie  Julien  un- 
der Boulanger  and  Le  Febvre.  During  his  second  year  abroad 
he  established  a studio  in  the  rue  de  Seine,  dividing  his  time  be- 
tween study  and  creative  work.  Mr.  Benson’s  first  and  impor- 
tant effort  painted  at  Concarneau,  Brittany,  during  his  first 
summer  in  France,  was  exhibited  at  the  Royal  Academy  in 


io6 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

London,  in  1885.  Returning  to  America,  he  settled  in  Salem, 
painting  portraits  and  teaching  at  the  Portland  Society  of  Art. 
In  1888  he  married  Miss  Ellen  Peerson,  the  subject  of  his  “Sum- 
mer.” From  1888  to  1912  he  was  instructor  at  the  Boston  Mu- 
seum School  of  Drawing  and  Painting,  later  serving  as  visiting 
instructor.  From  then  on  Mr.  Benson’s  rise  to  prominence  was 
steady  and  secure.  Many  examples  of  his  work,  for  which  he 
was  awarded  almost  all  the  academic  honors  that  America 
could  bestow,  may  be  seen  in  the  permanent  collections  of 
leading  museums  and  private  collections. 

Although  Mr.  Benson’s  first  experiments  in  etching  were 
done  while  he  was  still  a student  in  Boston  in  1882,  it  was  not 
until  1912  that  he  again  took  up  his  needle  and  the  copper  plate. 
A number  of  the  first  subjects  were  done  from  wash  drawings 
in  black  and  white,  a medium  in  which  he  excelled,  indicating 
an  experiment  in  technique  and  showing  the  value  of  the  etched 
line.  His  development  in  etching  was  very  rapid,  due  partly  to 
his  experience  in  painting,  and  partly  to  hi§  draftsmanship,  in 
which  he  combined  excellent  technique  with  genuine  feeling. 
His  composition  was  often  oriental  in  areas  of  spotting  and 
spacing  with  ducks  and  geese  flying  in  rhythmical  form  and 
pattern.  It  was  the  early  study  of  the  habits  of  these  birds  in 
Salem  Harbor  that  enabled  him  to  fuse  the  interest  of  the 
sportsman,  artist,  and  connoisseur  alike. 

There  is  pure  delight  in  the  study  of  Mr.  Benson’s  prints,  in 
which  one  is  able  to  study  arrangements  in  simple  and  elusive 
technique.  The  varied  approaches  which  he  employed  enabled 
him  to  capture  all  the  possibilities  of  his  subject.  He  was  a mas- 
ter in  the  suggesting  of  space  and  height,  so  necessary  for  birds 
in  rapid  flight;  and  the  rich  greys  and  vibrant  blacks  of  the 
birds  themselves  are  so  true  to  their  surroundings  that  there  is 
never  a feeling  of  inanimation. 

Mr.  Benson  made  statements,  in  his  drypoints  of  waterfowl 
particularly,  that  have  never  been  made  before,  establishing 
him  as  a master-etcher.  His  ducks  and  geese  are  alert  whether 
fluttering  up  from  their  resting  places,  swimming  in  formation, 
or  silhouetted  in  beautiful  pattern  against  the  sky. 

It  was  a privilege  to  look  at  many  of  these  prints  with  the 
artist  himself;  his  descriptions  were  word  pictures  as  interest- 


FRANK  W.  BENSON,  PAINTER  AND  ETCHER  107 


ing  as  the  plate  itself.  The  habits  and  haunts  of  the  different 
species  were  known  to  him  intimately  whether  mallard,  wood 
duck,  widgeon,  yellowleg,  teal,  swan,  drake,  redhead,  pintail, 
or  bluebill.  No  wonder  he  could  put  them  all  in  their  proper 
settings,  each  an  enchanting  record  of  wild  nature.  The  in- 
cidental landscapes  and  backgrounds  are  in  perfect  harmony 
with  the  birds’  habits.  One  sees  and  feels  this  wild  life  set  in 
the  clearing  of  a new  day,  where  the  mists  still  hover  about  the 
water’s  surface;  others  in  the  very  poetry  of  a fading  after- 
noon; then  there  are  those  with  sunlight  over  the  shallows  of 
a stream  with  reeds  or  groups  of  trees.  One  sees  a heron  stand- 
ing alone  reflecting  its  shadow  among  waterplants,  and  then 
the  eye  rests  on  proofs  of  wind  and  rain.  Much  time  is  spent  on 
a favored  print  of  Mr.  Benson‘s  entitled  “Geese,”  with  its  per- 
fection and  beauty  of  flight,  and  on  others  that  are  nearly  equal- 
ly important  in  his  mind. 

To  sum  up,  Mr.  Benson’s  work  reflects  a sensitive  apprecia- 
tion of  the  great  out-of-doors,  by  an  artist  who  was  ever  con- 
scious of  nature’s  offerings.  There  have  been  many  imitators, 
but  none  has  had  the  ability  to  interpret  his  mind,  or  that  al- 
most spiritual  gift  which  reflects  the  poetic  quality  of  his 
artistry. 

As  one  reflects  on  Mr.  Benson,  his  fine  personality  and  his 
great  accomplishment  in  art,  one  questions  one’s  ability  to  find 
adequate  words  for  full  expression  of  the  inner  thought;  and, 
should  the  phrase  be  found,  to  suggest  it,  one  lingers  on  it,  at 
length  wondering  if  the  full  meaning  of  his  loss  to  us  and  the 
graphic  art  world  has  been  fully  expressed.  The  indefinable  ex- 
pressions of  beauty,  mystery,  and  spirit  belonged  to  him.  All 
who  cherish  fine  prints,  his  friends,  and  those  of  us  who  knew 
our  “Cher  Maitre,”  believe  that  he  will  survive  through  his  en- 
during gift,  and  that  the  world  has  become  the  richer  through 
his  having  lived  among  us. 


Notes  on  Rare  Books 


An  Early  German  Carnival  Play 

THE  Library  has  recently  acquired  Pamphilus  Gengenbach’s 
Von  ainem  IValdbruder  (“About  a Hermit”)  a copy  of  the  second 
edition  of  the  Carnival  play  first  printed  under  the  title  Der  Nollhart. 
The  play  was  performed  on  Shrove  Sunday  of  the  year  1517  in  Basel. 
The  first  edition  was  printed  in  the  same  city,  presumably  in  Gengen- 
bach’s own  printing  house ; the  Library’s  volume  was  produced  in 
1522,  without  the  author’s  name  or  the  place,  probably  in  Augsburg. 

The  title-page  is  filled  with  the  woodcut  of  a hermit,  whose  up- 
raised arms  hold  two  curling  scrolls,  bearing  the  exhortations  “Keep 
brotherly  love.  Avoid  selfishness.  Love  God.  Love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself.”  In  the  background  rises  a forest,  and  the  whole  is  sur- 
rounded by  an  ornamental  border.  This  title-page  appeared  for  the 
first  time  in  the  second  edition;  the  woodcuts,  however,  which  in 
the  1517  edition  preceded  the  entrance  of  every  character  in  the  play, 
were  omitted.  The  volume  contains  some  unusual  border  decora- 
tions, flanking  the  text  in  the  inner  margins. 

The  Waldbruder  is  not  a drama  in  the  sense  of  possessing  action 
or  dramatic  development,  but  rather  a series  of  dialogues.  From  the 
long  prologue  one  learns  that  in  1488  there  appeared  a book  of 
prophecies  “of  great  dangers  and  torment,”  and  that  the  hermit 
is  none  other  than  the  author  of  this  book,  who  again  reveals  to 
the  heads  of  Christendom  the  fate  awaiting  them.  He  is  aided  in 
the  task  of  prophesying  by  St.  Methodius,  St.  Birgitta  of  Sweden, 
and  the  Sibyl,  who  appear  as  interlocutors  in  the  play.  St.  Methodius 
was  a fourth-century  bishop,  who  was  martyred  in  Greece  in  the 
persecution  under  Maximian ; St.  Birgitta,  the  wife  of  a Swedish 
prince,  became  lady-in-waiting  to  the  Queen  of  Sweden  in  1335, 
and  lived  a life  of  penance  after  the  death  of  her  husband ; and  the 
Sibyl  is  probably  the  Cumaean  Sibyl.  The  characters  who  come  on 
the  scene  in  turn  to  inquire  anxiously  about  their  futures  are  the 
Pope,  the  Emperor,  the  King  of  France,  the  Bishop  of  Mainz,  the 
Count  Palatine,  a Venetian,  a Turk,  a Swiss,  a soldier,  and  finally 
a Jew.  The  Pope,  reproached  by  St.  Birgitta  for  the  evils  in  Rome, 
learns  of  the  impending  invasion  by  the  French  King.  Only  the 
Emperor  fares  well,  and  this  is  indeed  the  tendency  of  the  work: 


108 


NOTES  ON  RARE  BOOKS 


109 


faith  in  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  and  the  urging  of  reform  in  the 
Church.  St.  Birgitta  prophesies  that  the  King  of  France  will  slay 
many  Germans,  but  will  be  driven  away  at  last  by  the  Emperor, 
who  will  reign  alone  from  Orient  to  Occident.  St.  Methodius  in- 
forms the  Turk  that,  when  all  Christendom  will  be  at  peace  and  the 
Church  will  be  reformed,  the  punishment  of  the  Turks  will  begin. 

The  volume  is  a quarto  of  24  leaves,  printed  with  Gothic  type. 
The  text,  consisting  of  rhymed  couplets  in  tetrameter,  follows  that 
of  1517,  but  with  some  modernization  of  the  spelling.  As  the  title 
had  been  changed,  the  name  of  W aldbruder  or  just  Bruder  was  sub- 
stituted for  Nollhart , except  in  one  place  (leaf  11  r).  Two  lines, 
preceding  the  brief  epilogue,  “Apology  of  the  poet  Pamphilus  Gen- 
genbach,”  are  also  absent,  in  accordance  with  the  anonymity  of  the 
edition.  Further,  the  date  1517,  mentioned  in  the  text,  had  to  be 
changed  to  1521 ; and,  since  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian 
had  occurred  in  1519,  it  was  necessary  to  alter  a prophecy  about  a 
future  emperor  from  “he  will  be  named  Maximilian”  to  ‘‘he  de- 
scends through  God  from  Maximilian.”  This  alteration  is  made 
by  means  of  a cancel,  the  verse  containing  the  new  line  being 
printed  on  a paper  flap  which  covers  the  original  text.  Yet  the 
theory  that  the  printer  used  sheets  left  over  from  the  first  edition 
does  not  hold  in  view  of  the  changes  in  the  spelling;  it  seems,  there- 
fore, that  this  particular  anachronism  was  overlooked  and  amended 
when  the  sheets  were  already  printed. 

Karl  Goedeke,  compiler  of  the  bibliography  Grundriss  zur  Geschichte 
dcr  deutschen  Dichtung,  published  in  1856  a reprint  of  the  first  edition 
of  the  work.  At  that  time  little  was  known  about  the  life  of  Pam- 
philus Gengenbach  beyond  the  fact  that  he  was  a citizen  of  Basel 
and  a printer  of  books  there  between  1517  and  1522.  Jacob  Baech- 
told,  in  his  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Literatur  in  der  Schweiz,  1892,  in- 
sisted that  Gengenbach  came  from  Nuremberg,  where  he  worked  as 
type-setter  for  Anton  Koberger,  and  migrated  from  there  to  Basel. 
Police  records  preserved  in  Basel  show  that,  as  late  as  1522,  Gen- 
genbach had  been  put  in  jail  for  careless  remarks  about  the  Em- 
peror, the  King  of  France,  and  the  Pope  — the  very  characters  who 
appear  in  the  Waldhruder.  But  as  a printer  he  must  have  been  judi- 
cious, for  between  1517  and  1519  one  of  his  draftsmen  was  Hans 
Holbein. 

Goedeke  credited  Gengenbach  with  twenty-four  works  of  his 
own,  but  the  authorship  of  some  of  these  has  been  questioned. 
Nevertheless,  a number  of  epic  and  dramatic  poems  are  considered 
indubitably  his,  notable  among  them  being  The  Ten  Ages  of  this 


no 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

World,  also  a Carnival  play,  with  which  the  history  of  modern 
drama  is  said  to  have  begun.  Three  years  before  his  death  in  1524, 
Gengenbach  issued  a reprint  of  Luther’s  Sermo  di  Poenitentia. 

The  Waldbruder  was  reprinted  in  1525,  and  subsequently  it  ap- 
peared in  a form  considerably  altered  by  Jacob  Camerlander. 

Margaret  Munsterberg 


The  Spirit  of  Young  America 

DURING  the  Civil  War,  as  during  all  wars,  children  imitated 
their  elders  by  playing  at  battles  and  soldiers;  and  the  toy 
manufacturers  and  publishers  produced  a stream  of  books  and 
playthings  to  suit  their  taste.  The  Library  has  recently  acquired 
such  a book  — The  Spirit  of  Young  America , a rare  juvenile  pub- 
lished at  Fall  River,  Massachusetts,  by  the  Fall  River  Litho- 
graphic Company,  in  1864.  This  little  volume,  6 by  8 inches  in 
colored  paper  covers,  contains  seven  patriotic  poems,  illustrated 
by  charming  colored  lithographs.  The  pictures  show  children 
dressed  as  soldiers  and  playing  their  parts : camping  out,  standing 
sentry,  fighting  battles,  and  so  on,  while  the  accompanying  verses 
tell  the  moral  and  patriotic  story  of  “Fred,  the  little  Captain,  who 
took  no  repose  nor  rest,  till  he  became  a Hero..” 

The  first  plate,  “The  Excercise,”  shows  Fred,  in  the  costume 
of  an  officer,  drilling  three  other  soldiers  with  the  help  of  a cor- 
poral. Here,  as  in  the  other  plates,  the  children  are  dressed  in  a 
hodgepodge  of  Revolutionary,  Civil  War,  and  Napoleonic  cos- 
tumes. “The  Marching  Out”  takes  place  the  next  day  “in  the 
first  beams  of  the  morning  light.”  Fred  is  shown  dividing  his 
army  into  two  parties  and  pointing  out  their  stations.  “The  Out- 
posts” depicts  Fred’s  men  sneaking  up  on  the  enemy  camp  be- 
hind a screen  of  rocks  and  trees,  about  to  “appear  so  quick  that 
the  foe  quakes  with  terror  and  surprise” ; and  the  next  picture, 
“The  Captives,”  shows  the  trial  of  two  prisoners  taken  at  this 
engagement.  Captain  Fred  is  judging  them,  while  another  boy 
is  cooking  their  supper  over  a fire  — which  “they’ll  receive  as 
their  just  punishment.”  Real  battle  is  finally  joined  in  “The 
Storming  of  the  Bridge”;  the  picture  shows  the  fight  in  progress, 
while  the  poem  describes  the  victory  of  Fred’s  party  and  the 
enemy’s  retreat  to  the  village.  The  final  verses,  “The  Last  Battle, 


NOTES  ON  RARE  BOOKS 


1 1 1 


and  Surrender  of  the  Enemy,”  tell  of  the  fighting  in  the  streets 
of  the  town,  the  success  of  Fred’s  men,  and  the  peace  made  be- 
tween the  opponents.  It  ends, 

“Ah!”  cry  they,  “our  Fred  is  a hero  of  might, 

Who  leads  us  to  act  — not  to  prattle; 

Henceforth  will  we  often  march  out  to  the  field 
And  follow  him  on  to  the  battle.” 

The  cover  of  the  book  is  also  printed  in  colors  with  a scene 
from  the  story;  it  shows  the  children  in  camp,  with  a sentry  and 
drummer  on  guard.  Nine  separate  lithographic  stones  were  used 
to  print  each  plate,  producing  a delicate  and  varied  effect.  The 
New  England  landscapes  which  form  most  of  the  backgrounds 
are  one  of  the  most  attractive  features  of  the  book. 

Even  more  than  adult  productions,  chidren’s  books  tend  to  be 
read  to  death,  and  the  existence  of  a paper-bound  volume  like  this 
in  such  good  condition  is  unusual.  As  far  as  can  be  ascertained, 
the  book  does  not  appear  in  the  standard  bibliographies  of  Amer- 
ican children’s  literature;  it  is  not  in  Sabin’s  Books  Relating  to 
America.  There  is  a brief  entry  in  Kelly’s  American  Catalogue , but 
this  gives  no  information  not  found  on  the  title-page.  As  for  the 
Fall  River  Lithographic  Company,  it  was  not  a regular  publish- 
ing house ; an  advertisement  in  the  city  directory  for  1864  lists  them 
merely  as  “designers,  engravers,  and  printers  of  every  descrip- 
tion of  labels,  show-cards,  etc.”  By  the  end  of  the  decade,  the 
firm  had  disappeared. 


Alison  Bishop 


Trustees  of  the  Library 

Lee  M.  Friedman,  President 
Robert  H.  Lord,  Vice-President 
Frank  W.  Buxton  Frank  J.  Donahue 

Patrick  F.  McDonald 

Director,  and  Librarian 

Milton  Edward  Lord 


Contributors  to  this  Issue 

Sherman  Paul  is  an  Instructor  in  English  and  General  Education 
at  Harvard  University. 

Abe  C.  Ravitz  is  working  for  his  doctorate  in  American  Literature 
at  New  York  University. 

Arthur  W.  Heintzelman,  etcher  and  painter,  is  Keeper  of  Prints 
at  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

Margaret  Munsterberg  and  Alison  Bishop  are  members  of  the 
staff  of  the  Rare  Book  Department  of  the  Library. 

Zoltan  Haraszti  is  Keeper  of  Rare  Books  and  Editor  of  Publica- 
tions at  the  Boston  Public  Library.  He  is  the  author  of  John 
Adams  and  the  Prophets  of  Progress,  just  published  by  the  Harvard 
University  Press. 


3.21,52.  1 M . 


THE 

Boston  Public  Library 
QUARTERLY 


Volume  4,  Number  3 


Contents 


Page 

A Hundred  Years  Ago  115 

By  Zoltdn  Haraszti 

Governor  Bernard  for  an  American  Nobility  125 

By  Jordan  D.  Fiore 

The  Keepsake  in  Nineteenth-Century  Art  139 

By  Frank  W eitenkampf 

Eugene  Delatre  149 

By  Arthur  W.  Heintzelman 

Notes  on  Rare  Books  and  Manuscripts 


Letters  by  Longfellow  to  Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps 
by  Mary  L.  Hcgarty 

A Stephen  O’Meara  Collection 

Valentine  Writers’  Manuals 
by  Alison  Bishop 

Illustrations 


157 

160 


* * 


EDITOR:  ZOLTAN  HARASZTI 

The  Boston  Public  Library  Quarterly  is  published  for  January,  April,  July, 
and  October  by  the  Trustees  of  the  Public  Library  of  the  City  of  Boston 
in  Copley  Square,  Boston  17.  Entered  as  second-class  matter  at  Boston, 
Massachusetts.  Printed  at  the  Boston  Public  Library  in  June  1952 

Single  Copies , 50  cents 
Annual  Subscription , $ 2.00 


THE 

Boston  Public  Library 
QUARTERLY 

July  1952 

A Hundred  Years  Ago 

By  ZOLTAN  HARASZTI 

IT  was  on  October  14,  1852  — a hundred  years  ago  — that 
the  City  Council  of  Boston  passed  an  ordinance  giving  defi- 
nite form  to  the  organization  of  a public  library.  Many 
events  had  prepared  the  establishment  of  the  new  institution, 
but  this  act  is  justly  regarded  as  the  beginning  of  its  existence. 

The  ordinance  — City  Document  No.  57  — is  brief,  its  text 
occupying  little  more  than  two  pages.  First  of  all,  it  provided 
for  the  annual  choosing  of  a Board  of  Trustees,  consisting  of 
one  member  of  the  Board  of  Mayor  and  Aldermen,  one  mem- 
ber of  the  Common  Council  and  five  citizens  at  large.  The 
Board  was  to  make  “such  rules  and  regulations  for  their  own 
government  and  in  relation  to  subordinate  officers  by  them 
appointed,  as  they  may  deem  expedient.”  It  gave  the  Trustees 
“general  care  and  control”  of  the  Library,  including  the  ex- 
penditure of  all  moneys  appropriated  therefor,  subject  at  all 
times  to  any  limitations  or  restrictions  made  by  the  City  Coun- 
cil. The  Trustees  were  directed  to  make  an  annual  report  to 
the  City  Council  containing  a statement  of  the  condition  of 
the  Library,  the  number  of  books  added  during  the  year,  and 
an  account  of  all  receipts  and  expenditures,  together  with  such 
information  or  suggestions  as  they  might  deem  important. 

By  the  two  branches  of  the  City  Council,  a Librarian  was 
to  be  chosen  annually,  removable  at  their  pleasure.  He  was  to 


n6  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

have  “the  immediate  care  and  custody”  of  the  Library,  “per- 
form any  and  all  of  the  services  in  relation  to  the  same  and  . . . 
obey  all  rules  that  may  be  prescribed  by  the  Trustees.”  There 
was  to  be  appointed  annually  a Committee  of  five  citizens  at 
large,  who,  together  with  a Trustee  as  chairman,  were  to  ex- 
amine the  Library  and  make  a report  of  its  condition  to  the 
Trustees.  This  report  was  to  be  transmitted  by  the  Trustees 
to  the  City  Council  at  the  time  of  the  presentation  of  their  own 
annual  report.  In  prescribing  the  regulations  relative  to  the 
care  and  use  of  books,  it  was  made  the  duty  of  the  Trustees 
“to  adopt  such  measures  as  shall  extend  the  benefits  of  the  in- 
stitution as  widely  as  practicable  throughout  the  community.” 

Nearly  two  more  years  went  by  before  the  doors  of  the  new 
library  were  opened  to  the  public;  yet  from  the  date  of  the 
adoption  of  this  ordinance  Boston  already  had  its  library. 

T HE  idea  of  establishing  a free  city  library  originated  with 
the  Frenchman  Alexandre  Vattemare.  Born  in  1797,  Vatte- 
mare  had  a strange  career.  As  “Monsieur  Alexandre,”  he  was 
known  throughout  Europe  as  an  actor  — an  impersonator  and 
ventriloquist;  then,  during  his  travels  in  many  countries,  he 
conceived  the  idea  of  an  international  exchange  of  books, 
prints,  and  documents  among  libraries  and  museums.  Having 
founded  such  a system  in  Europe,  in  October  1839  he  came  to 
America  to  extend  the  organization  to  this  country.  Armed 
with  innumerable  letters  of  introduction,  he  visited  Washing- 
ton, where  President  Van  Buren  as  well  as  the  party  leaders 
— John  Quincy  Adams,  Henry  Clay,  Daniel  Webster,  and 
others  — were  greatly  impressed  by  his  scheme. 

Soon  he  addressed  a memorial  to  Congress:  “At  the  instance 
chiefly  of  your  memorialist,”  he  wrote,  “a  system  of  exchanges 
has  commenced  between  the  governments  and  literary  insti- 
tutions of  the  different  nations  in  Europe,  by  which  books, 
natural  productions,  and  works  of  art  possessed  by  one  are 
transferred,  for  an  equivalent  value,  to  another  which  may 
need  them.”  What  could  the  United  States  offer  in  such  a sys- 
tem? “Wanting  printed  books,”  he  assured  Congress,  “the 


A HUNDRED  YEARS  AGO 


ii  7 

natural  productions  of  the  countries  . . . are  sought  and  in- 
quired for  with  avidity  in  Europe  and  would  command  returns 
ten-fold  of  any  value  that  the  cost  of  obtaining  them  on  the 
spot  would  amount  to.”  And  there  were  also  the  laws,  statutes, 
and  ordinances  of  the  federal,  state,  and  city  governments. 
The  Joint  Committee  on  the  Library  wrote  a favorable  report, 
recommending  that  the  Librarian  be  authorized  to  exchange 
such  duplicates  as  might  be  in  the  Library,  and  that  thereafter 
fifty  additional  copies  of  each  volume  of  documents  be  printed 
for  the  purpose  of  exchange.  Both  Houses  unanimously  ap- 
proved. 

His  work  in  Washington  done,  Vattemare  began  his  propa- 
ganda among  the  state  governments.  His  campaign  took  him 
throughout  the  country.  Everywhere  he  was  received  with  en- 
thusiasm. Well  did  he  say,  with  his  love  of  beautiful  phrases:  “Men 
from  the  snow-clad  hills  of  the  North,  the  sunny  glades  of  the 
South,  the  rock-bound  coast  of  the  Atlantic,  and  the  solitudes 
of  the  West,  laying  aside  sectional  feelings  and  party  ties, 
came  together  to  meet  upon  neutral  grounds  ...”  A number 
of  states  agreed  to  print  extra  copies  of  their  documents,  and 
appropriated  varying  sums  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  sys- 
tem of  exchanges. 

In  April  1841,  just  before  returning  to  France,  Vattemare 
appeared  in  Boston.  He  found  a good  many  society  libraries  in 
the  city,  but  no  great  public  institution  which  could  carry  on 
the  system  of  exchanges.  The  great  need  was,  therefore,  to 
found  such  an  institution.  One  of  his  first  visits  was  to  Josiah 
Quincy,  President  of  Harvard  and  former  Mayor  of  Boston. 
The  following  day  Quincy  wrote  to  his  son:  “Mr.  Vattemare’s 
suggestions,  on  reflection,  I think  both  feasible  and  desirable, 
and  not  to  be  slighted  because  of  their  foreign  source.”  The 
Frenchman’s  plan,  he  went  on,  was  to  form  a general  organi- 
zation among  all  the  societies  that  had  libraries,  so  as  to  have 
a medium  of  communication  with  similar  associations  in  other 
states  and  countries.  In  aid  of  such  an  organization,  Vatte- 
mare’s further  suggestion  was  that  “a  building  should  be  ob- 
tained either  from  the  patronage  of  the  city  or  state,  or  from 
the  subscription  of  private  individuals,  for  uniting  all  the  libra- 
ries and  collections  in  one  place  and  under  one  general  super- 


n8  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

intendence  . . . and  the  whole  opened  freely  to  the  public,  as 
such  libraries  and  collections  are  in  Europe.” 

The  younger  Quincy,  a lawyer  near  forty  and  a former  presi- 
dent of  the  City  Council,  shared  his  father’s  views,  and  with 
him  all  the  younger  men  to  whom  Vattemare  especially  ad- 
dressed himself.  On  April  24  they  held  a meeting,  listening 
“with  great  delight”  to  his  plan  of  forming  “a  great  Literary 
and  Scientific  Institution  in  this  city.”  Moved  by  the  same 
idealism  which  at  that  very  moment  was  leading  to  the  found- 
ing of  Brook  Farm,  they  hoped  that  such  an  institution  would 
break  down  “the  factitious  distinctions  which  separate  class 
from  class”  by  disseminating  knowledge  and  taste  through 
every  portion  of  the  population.  A second  meeting  was  held 
on  May  7,  Jonathan  Chapman,  the  Mayor,  presiding.  A Com- 
mittee of  five  — consisting  of  such  outstanding  citizens  as 
Dr.  Walter  Channing,  Josiah  Quincy,  Jr.,  Charles  Francis 
Adams,  the  Reverend  Ezra  S.  Gannett,  and  the  Reverend 
George  W.  Blagden  — was  elected  to  correspond  with  the  va- 
rious societies  concerning  the  amalgamation  of  their  libraries. 

Unfortunately,  the  project  met  with  little  success.  Some  of 
the  societies  saw  “insuperable  objections”  to  the  union,  while 
others  made  difficult  stipulations.  So  the  enterprise  began  to 
lag.  Vattemare’s  letter  of  January  1843,  announcing  the  send- 
ing of  fifty  volumes  as  a gift  from  the  City  of  Paris,  aroused 
some  qualms  of  conscience;  for  the  Frenchman  made  the  re- 
spectful suggestion  that  the  resolution  of  1841  should  be  re- 
deemed and  “an  Institution  established,  which  will  not  only 
be  a suitable  depository  for  foreign  works,  but  an  ornament 
to  the  ‘Athens  of  America’  and  a mine  of  literary  wealth  to  her 
sons.”  A movement  was  started  to  repay  the  gift  of  Paris,  and 
hundreds  of  volumes  were  donated  by  interested  citizens.  But 
there  the  affair  stopped. 

^3  N his  second  American  visit  in  1847,  Vattemare  was  obliged 
to  make  a new  start  in  Boston. 

During  the  preceding  six  years  he  had  sent  thousands  of 
volumes  to  this  country,  and  he  brought  with  him  twelve 
thousand  books,  three  hundred  maps,  and  a large  number  of 


A HUNDRED  YEARS  AGO 


1 19 

medals  and  engravings.  Nearly  a hundred  volumes  were  ear- 
marked for  Boston.  The  system  of  exchanges  seemed  securely 
established  in  America ; twelve  states,  including  far-off  In- 
diana, were  enrolled,  and  the  state  legislatures  were  vying  with 
one  another  in  the  appreciation  of  Vattemare’s  services.  In 
Boston  he  was  welcomed  with  special  warmth.  Josiah  Quincy, 
Jr.  was  now  Mayor,  and  he  was  a real  friend.  One  evening  in 
August  he  gave  a party  for  the  visitor,  to  which  all  members 
of  the  City  Council  were  invited,  thus  providing  an  opportuni- 
ty for  talking  matters  over.  Soon  afterwards  a Special  Com- 
mittee was  elected  to  consider  “what  acknowledgment  and 
return  should  be  made  to  the  City  of  Paris  for  its  gift  of  books, 
and  to  provide  a place  for  the  same.” 

On  October  14  this  Committee  conveyed  Vattemare’s  wish 
that,  if  the  City  choose  to  reciprocate  the  gift  of  Paris,  it  should 
not  be  in  works  of  great  value  but  rather  in  such  books  as  illus- 
trated the  present  condition  of  literature,  art,  science,  and  gov- 
ernment in  America.  At  the  end,  they  pointed  to  the  need  for 
a public  library: 

The  Committee  cannot  close  their  report  without  recommending 
to  the  City  Council  a consideration  of  the  propriety  of  commencing 
a public  library.  Many  of  the  citizens  would,  they  believe,  be;  happy 
to  contribute  both  in  books  and  money  to  such  an  object,  and  the 
Committee  are  informed  that  a citizen  who  wishes  that  his  name 
may  be  concealed,  has  offered  the  sum  of  five  thousand  dollars  for 
the  purpose  of  making  the  commencement  — on  condition  only 
that  ten  thousand  dollars  are  raised  at  large  for  the  same  purpose, 
and  that  the  Library  should  be  as  freely  used  by  all  as  may  be  con- 
sistent with  the  safe  keeping  of  the  property. 

A room  on  the  third  floor  of  City  Hall  was  set  aside  for  the 
deposit  and  safe-keeping  of  the  books  received  from  Paris;  and 
a new  Joint  Committee  was  appointed  to  discuss  “the  expedi- 
ency of  commencing  the  formation  of  a public  library  under 
the  control  and  auspices  of  the  City.”  The  books  to  reciprocate 
the  Paris  gift  were  also  pouring  in;  the  list  of  them,  printed 
two  years  later,  comprised  more  than  a thousand  titles.  How- 
ever, no  donations  of  money  were  forthcoming;  Mayor  Quincy’s 
offer  — for  he  was  the  citizen  who  wished  to  have  his  name 
concealed  — was  allowed  to  lapse. 


120 


THE  B.  P.L.  QUARTERLY 

The  Committee,  at  least,  met  frequently.  On  December  6 it 
reported,  again  through  the  Mayor : 

That  in  their  opinion  the  establishment  of  a public  library  is 
recommended  by  many  considerations. 

It  will  tend  to  interest  the  people  at  large  in  literature  and  science. 

It  will  provide  for  those  who  are  desirous  of  reading  a better 
class  of  books  than  the  ephemeral  literature  of  the  day. 

It  may  be  the  means  of  developing  minds  that  may  make  their 
possessors  an  honor  and  a blessing  to  their  race. 

It  will  give  to  the  young  when  leaving  school  an  opportunity  to 
make  further  advances  in  learning  and  knowledge. 

It  will  by  supplying  an  innocent  and  praiseworthy  occupation 
prevent  a resort  to  those  scenes  of  amusement  that  are  prejudicial 
to  the  elevation  of  the  mind. 

The  Committee  endorsed  Vattemare’s  plans  as  “worthy  of 
the  attention  and  patronage  of  the  City” ; and  whereas  former- 
ly only  the  international  aspects  of  the  system  had  been  em- 
phasized, now  attention  was  called  to  the  benefit  which  all  the 
cities  of  America  would  derive  from  it.  “Linked  together  as  we 
are  by  political  and  business  relations,”  the  Committee  stated, 
“the  character  and  intelligence  of  the  people  in  every  city  be- 
tween here  and  Oregon  is  of  most  importance  to  the  citizens 
of  Boston.”  If  a free  library  is  founded  here,  the  example  will 
be  imitated.  “At  all  events,  the  establishment  of  public  libra- 
ries and  a free  exchange  of  works  of  science,  literature  and  art 
will  be  productive  of  great  good  and  is  well  deserving  an  at- 
tempt to  obtain  it.” 

But  even  in  its  generous  zeal,  the  Committee  was  careful 
to  make  it  clear  that  it  was  not  recommending  “that  the  City 
should  make  any  appropriation  for  the  purchase  of  books,  or 
hold  out  any  encouragement  that  it  will  be  done  hereafter”  — 
a statement  perhaps  made  only  to  allay  anxieties.  The  Com- 
mittee merely  proposed  that  the  City  “should  receive  and  take 
care  of  any  volume  that  may  be  contributed  for  the  purpose 
and  agree,  when  the  Library  is  of  sufficient  importance  to  jus- 
tify the  expense,  to  provide  means  that  shall  enable  all  the 
citizens  to  use  it.” 

In  his  New  Year’s  address  of  January  3,  1848,  Mayor  Quincy 
suggested  that  application  be  made  to  the  Legislature  “for 
power  of  aiding  public-spirited  citizens  in  the  formation  of  a 


A HUNDRED  YEARS  AGO 


21 


library/’  The  incoming  City  Council  took  up  the  subject,  and 
on  January  24  directed  the  Mayor  to  make  such  an  application. 
In  response  to  the  Mayor’s  ensuing  move,  on  March  18  the 
Legislature  of  the  Commonwealth  passed  an  act  authorizing 
the  City  of  Boston  “to  establish  and  maintain  a Public  Library 
for  the  use  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  said  City.”  It  empowered 
the  City  Council  to  make  such  rules  and  regulations  for  the 
care  and  maintenance  of  the  institution  as  they  deemed  proper, 
provided  that  the  annual  appropriation  did  not  exceed  five 
thousand  dollars.  The  Act  was  approved  by  the  Governor  on 
the  same  day,  and  was  forwarded  at  once  to  the  Common 
Council,  where  it  was  read  and  accepted.  Finally,  on  April  3, 
the  Mayor  and  Board  of  Aldermen  signalized  their  concurrence. 

Thus  the  act  became  a statute  — the  first  statute  ever  passed 
authorizing  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  a public  li- 
brary as  a municipal  institution  supported  by  taxation. 

H OWEVER,  there  was  no  hope  that  “a  large  public  sub- 
scription” could  be  obtained  towards  the  establishment  of  a 
public  library.  The  Committee,  therefore,  opened  negotiations 
with  the  Trustees  of  the  Boston  Athenaeum  with  the  view  of 
making  its  library  accessible  to  the  public.  An  annual  sum  of 
five  thousand  dollars  was  offered  by  the  City,  and  the  promise 
of  raising  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  (by  subscription  among 
citizens,  not  shareholders  of  the  Athenaeum)  to  complete  the 
Athenaeum’s  new  building  on  Beacon  Street  was  made.  The 
City’s  condition  was  that  “the  citizens  generally  should  be  ad- 
mitted to  all  the  privileges  of  the  shareholders.”  The  Trustees 
of  the  Athenaeum  declined  the  offer,  suggesting  that  the  Athenaeum 
might  be  satisfied  with  fifty  thousand  dollars  and  the  annual 
payment  “for  the  admission  of  the  citizens  to  the  use  of  the 
library  only,  without  any  privileges  in  the  reading-room  or 
otherwise.”  But  the  shareholders  refused  to  authorize  even 
such  an  arrangement. 

Meanwhile  books  from  authors,  publishers,  and  private  in- 
dividuals continued  to  pour  in.  “They  are  a noble  response 
from  the  community  in  favor  of  a free  city  library,”  the  Com- 
mittee reported,  adding  that  “the  rare  and  valuable  books  re- 


122 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

ceived  from  Paris  are  the  nucleus  around  which,  we  earnestly 
hope,  a new  and  popular  institution  will  speedily  arise,  which 
shall  open  its  doors  to  the  public.” 

The  first  contribution  of  money  was  received  in  August, 
1850,  from  Mayor  John  P.  Bigelow  — a thousand  dollars,  out 
of  the  amount  subscribed  for  a testimonial  to  him.  Ever  since, 
the  income  of  that  fund  has  been  devoted  to  the  purchase  of 
books.  About  the  same  time  Edward  Everett  offered  his  col- 
lection of  public  documents  and  state  papers,  comprising  near- 
ly a thousand  volumes.  He  strongly  urged  the  acquisition  of  a 
building  suitable  for  the  accommodation  of  fifteen  or  twenty 
thousand  volumes  and  capable  of  future  enlargement.  “The 
first  principles  of  popular  government,”  he  insisted,  “require 
that  the  means  of  education  should,  as  far  as  possible,  be  equal- 
ly within  the  reach  of  the  whole  population.”  There  was  no 
other  place  where  these  principles  were  so  thoroughly  carried 
out  as  in  Boston  — up  to  the  age  when  school  education  ended. 
Beyond  that  point  “the  noble  principle  of  equality”  failed: 

At  present  the  sons  of  the  wealthy  alone  have  access  to  well- 
stored  libraries ; while  those  whose  means  do  not  allow  them  to 
purchase  books  are  too  often  debarred  from  them  at  the  moment 
when  they  would  be  most  useful  . . . Where  is  the  young  engineer, 
machinist,  architect,  chemist,  engraver,  painter,  or  student  in  any 
of  the  professions  or  any  of  the  exact  sciences,  or  of  any  branch 
of  natural  history,  or  of  moral  or  intellectual  philosophy,  to  get 
access  to  the  books  which  are  absolutely  necessary  for  him  to  pur- 
sue his  inquiries  to  any  advantage?  There  are  no  libraries  in  Bos- 
ton which  strictly  speaking  are  public. 

By  January  1,  1852,  the  books  received  for  the  future  library 
numbered  4,000  volumes.  In  February  Mayor  Seaver  requested 
the  City  Council  to  make  concrete  provisions  for  the  library. 
The  small  room  on  the  third  floor  of  City  Hall  was  insufficient, 
and  further  donations  could  hardly  be  expected  before  rooms 
were  provided.  “There  should  be,”  he  stated,  “no  unnecessary 
delay  in  placing  the  library  on  such  a foundation  as  will  entitle 
it  to,  and  secure  for  it,  the  fullest  confidence  of  the  community 
in  its  success  and  usefulness.”  Three  years  before,  John  Jacob 
Astor  had  bequeathed  to  the  City  of  New  York  the  sum  of 
$400,000  tor  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  a public 


A HUNDRED  YEARS  AGO  123 

library;  and  Mayor  Seaver  appealed  to  the  pride  of  the  City 
Council : 

Boston  ought  not  long  to  be  far  behind  her  sister  city  of  New  York 
in  the  establishment  of  a public  library;  and,  while  we  can  scarcely 
hope  to  rival  her  princely  Astor,  it  cannot  be*  doubted  that  we  have 
many  citizens  who  would  be  ready  to  bestow  upon  it  large  sums 
in  money  and  in  books,  if  they  can  be  fully  satisfied  of  its  perma- 
nent foundation  and  ultimate  success. 

At  the  same  time  the  Mayor  suggested  the  appointment  of 
a Librarian  and  the  formation  of  a Board  of  Trustees.  His 
recommendations  were  adopted  — on  May  13  the  City  Council 
chose  Edward  Capen  as  Librarian;  and  on  May  24  Edward 
Everett,  George  Ticknor,  John  P.  Bigelow,  Nathaniel  B.  Shurtleff, 
and  Thomas  G.  Appleton  were  elected  to  serve,  together  with 
the  Committee  on  the  Library,  as  members  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees.  The  first  report  of  the  Board,  “on  the  objects  to  be 
attained  by  the  establishment  of  a public  library  and  the  best 
mode  of  effecting  them,”  was  drawn  up  by  Ticknor  with  Ever- 
ett’s help.  Submitted  on  July  6,  it  was  unanimously  adopted. 

This  is  a famous  document.  With  its  vision  of  the  library  of 
the  future,  it  is  justly  regarded  as  a basis  of  the  entire  public 
library  movement  in  America. 

T HE  report  first  described  the  system  of  public  education, 
its  achievements  and  limitations,  emphasizing  the  function  of 
libraries.  The  existing  social  libraries,  it  stated,  did  not  satisfy 
the  great  wants  of  the  City,  for  multitudes  had  no  right  of  ac- 
cess to  any  of  them.  Yet  books  ought  to  be  furnished  to  all, 
for,  under  the  social,  political,  and  religious  institutions  of 
America,  it  was  of  paramount  importance  that  the  largest  pos-‘ 
sible  number  of  persons  should  be  able  to  understand  questions 
going  down  to  the  very  foundations  of  the  social  order.  Al- 
though the  rival  claims  of  no  class,  no  matter  how  highly  edu- 
cated, should  be  overlooked,  the  first  regard  should  be  shown 
to  the  needs  of  those  who  in  no  other  way  could  supply  them- 
selves with  the  reading  necessary  for  their  further  education. 
The  precise  plan  of  the  new  library  could  not  be  settled  before- 
hand; it  was  “a  new  thing,”  and  one  had  to  feel  one’s  way  as 


124 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

one  advanced.  Nevertheless,  one  might  foresee  that  it  would 
fall  into  four  classes: 

1.  Books  that  could  not  be  taken  out  of  the  Library,  such 
as  cyclopedias,  dictionaries,  important  public  documents,  and 
books  which,  from  their  rarity  or  costliness,  could  not  be  easily 
replaced. 

2.  Books  that  few  persons  would  wish  to  read,  and  of 
which,  therefore,  only  one  copy  need  be  kept,  but  which  should 
be  permitted  to  circulate  freely.  If,  contrary  to  expectation, 
this  copy  should  be  often  asked  for,  another  copy,  or  more 
than  one  other  copy,  should  be  bought. 

3.  Books  that  would  be  often  asked  for,  that  is,  ‘The  more 
respectable  of  the  popular  books  of  the  time.”  Of  these,  copies 
should  be  provided  in  such  numbers  that  many  persons,  if  they 
desire  it,  could  read  the  same  work  at  the  same  moment,  and 
so  render  the  pleasant  and  healthy  literature  of  the  day  acces- 
sible to  the  whole  people  at  the  only  time  they  care  for  it  — 
when  it  is  living,  fresh,  and  new. 

4.  Periodical  literature,  which  should  not  be  taken  out  at 
all,  or  only  in  rare  and  peculiar  cases,  but  should  be  kept  in  a 
reading  room  accessible  to  everybody. 

The  report  recommended  that  no  restriction  be  placed  on 
access  to  the  Library,  “except  such  as  the  nature  of  individual 
books,  or  their  safety,  may  demand.”  Thus  the  Trustees  hoped 
to  make  the  Library  “the  crowning  glory”  of  the  system  of 
City  schools  — an  institution  “fitted  to  continue  and  increase 
the  best  effects  of  that  system,  by  opening  all  the  means  of 
self  culture  through  books,  for  which  these  schools  have  been 
specially  qualifying  them.” 

The  erection  of  a building  and  the  purchase  of  an  ample  li- 
brary the  Trustees  regarded  as  impossible  at  that  time.  They 
looked  only  for  the  continuance  of  such  “moderate  and  frugal 
expenditure”  as  had  already  been  started,  and  for  the  assign- 
ment of  a room  or  rooms  in  one  of  the  public  buildings  belong- 
ing to  the  City.  In  order  to  put  the  Library  into  operation  with 
the  least  possible  delay,  they  suggested  the  use  of  the  ground 
floor  of  the  Adams  school-house  in  Mason  Street. 

The  next  step  was  the  passing  of  the  ordinance  of  October 
14;  1852. 


Governor  Bernard  for  an  American  Nobility 

By  JORDAN  D.  FIORE 

BY  his  inability  to  appreciate  the  American  point  of  view 
and  by  his  unwillingness  to  compromise,  Francis  Bernard, 
Royal  Governor  of  Massachusetts  from  1760  to  1769, 
greatly  hastened  the  crisis.  Unaware  of  his  faults,  he  constant- 
ly urged  the  authorities  in  England  to  revise  the  American 
colonial  system  and  establish  an  American  nobility  to  combat 
radicalism.  According  to  his  own  admissions,  he  disapproved  of 
many  of  the  policies  of  the  home  government,  but,  since  the 
sovereignty  lay  “in  the  hands  of  the  King  in  Parliament,”  he 
regarded  it  as  his  duty  to  carry  them  out. 

Many  of  the  difficulties,  Bernard  felt,  grew  out  of  the  fact 
that  no  definite  set  of  rules  had  been  established  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  colonies.  With  confidence  in  his  own  wisdom, 
he  developed  such  a code,  and  in  1764  he  forwarded  it  to  his 
patrons  in  England  under  the  title  “Principles  of  Law  and 
Polity,  Applied  to  the  Government  of  the  British  Colonies  in 
America.”1  He  sent  three  copies  to  his  wife’s  cousin,  Viscount 
Barrington,  Secretary  at  War,  on  June  23,  1764,  with  the  re- 
quest that  he  transmit  one  to  Lord  Hillsborough,  First  Lord  of 
Trade,  and  one  to  Lord  Halifax,  a Secretary  of  State.3  Richard 
Jackson,  who  soon  afterward  \Vas  Bernard’s  choice  for  Agent 
for  Massachusetts,  and  John  Pownall,  Secretary  of  the  Board 
of  Trade,  also  received  copies.3  For  the  next  five  years  he  was 
to  bombard  his  patrons  with  a request  to  put  his  plan  into 
practice. 

The  “Principles  of  Law  and  Polity”  lists  ninety-seven  theses, 
Bernard  stated  his  purpose  in  his  preface  as  follows: 

The  writer  has  avoided  declamation,  and  kept  close  to  argument. 
He  has  reduced  his  whole  subject  into  a set  of  propositions;  be- 
ginning with  first  principles  which  are  self-evident,  proceeding  to 
propositions  capable  of  positive  proof,  and  descending  to  hypotheses 
which  are  to  be  determined  by  degrees  of  probability  only .4 

He  agreed  first  with  the  doctrine  that  the  sovereignty  of  Great 
Britain  lay  in  the  hands  of  the  King  and  Parliament,  and  that 


125 


126 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

Parliament  had  the  right  to  make  all  laws.  Parliament  might 
grant  or  allow  separate  legislation  in  the  colonies;  but  this 
was  a grant  and  not  an  absolute  right.  Further,  he  maintained 
that  this  privilege  of  separate  legislation  “must  be  exercised 
in  subordination  to  the  Sovereign  power  from  which  it  is  de- 
rived.”5 Since  the  Privy  Council  of  the  King  could  reject  any 
law  passed  by  the  legislature  and  approved  by  the  Governor, 
this  did  not  represent  any  change  of  policy. 

Principle  36  recommended  that  the  colonies  should  “pay 
the  charge  for  the  support  of  their  own  Governments,  and  of 
their  own  defence.”  One  of  the  items  on  which  the  British 
Ministry  had  asked  the  advice  of  the  Lords  of  Trade  in  1763 
was  the  matter  of  colonial  contribution  to  the  cost  of  main- 
taining the  King’s  forces  in  America.  Thus  Bernard’s  principle 
should  have  been  acceptable  in  England,  but  it  would  certainly 
have  roused  the  colonies.  Bernard  reiterated  the  right  of  Par- 
liament to  raise  taxes  in  any  part  of  the  Empire,  yet,  he  stated, 
“it  would  be  most  adviseable  to  leave  the  Provincial  Legis- 
latures the  raising  the  internal  takes.”6  Having  straddled  the 
issue,  he  further  advised  that  “it  would  make  it  more  agreeable 
to  the  people,  though  the  sum  to  be  raised  was  prescribed,  to 
leave  the  method  of  taxation  to  their  own  Legislature.”7 

These  theses  were  compromises  between  the  American  and 
British  points  of  view.  The  colonies  had  been  paying  the  costs 
of  their  own  governments  by  provincial  legislation,  and  accord- 
ing to  the  Bernard  plan  the  procedure  was  to  continue.  The 
colonies  had  frequently  been  reimbursed  for  a large  part  of 
the  money  spent  in  their  own  defense,  but  under  the  plan  the 
entire  costs  would  be  borne  by  them.  In  this  respect,  the  plan 
was  in  agreement  with  the  recommendations  of  the  Board  of 
Trade.  It  urged  that  the  Ministry  should  prescribe  the  amount 
that  the  provincial  legislatures  should  raise  for  their  govern- 
ments and  defense;  the  legislatures  would  be  allowed  merely 
to  determine  the  manner  in  which  the  money  was  to  be  raised.8 

For  those  who  at  the  time  of  the  Sugar  Act  had  insisted 
upon  the  policy  of  “No  taxation  without  representation,  the 
Governor  had  something  to  offer.  In  his  opinion,  granting  a 
share  in  the  imperial  legislation  to  the  colonies  would  be  im- 
practical, but  representation  in  Parliament  might  be  expedient; 


GOVERNOR  BERNARD 


127 


and,  although  the  authority  of  Parliament  over  the  colonies 
was  not  to  be  questioned,  colonial  representation  might  serve 
“for  quieting  disputes”  and  “preventing  a separation  in  future 
times.”9 

This  suggestion  of  representation  in  Parliament  was  in  keep- 
ing with  the  demands  of  some  members  of  the  popular  faction 
at  that  moment.  James  Otis  in  his  The  Rights  of  the  British 
Colonies  Asserted  and  Proved  had  approved  of  the  principle.  He 
wrote  in  1764: 

When  the  parliament  shall  think  fit  to  allow  the  colonists  a rep- 
resentation in  the  house  of  commons,  the  equity  of  their  taxing 
the  colonies  will  be  as  clear  as  their  power  is  at  present  of  doing  it 
without,  as  they  please.10 

One  of  the  Boston  Resolutions  of  28  May,  1764,  which  instructed 
the  town’s  representatives  — Tyler,  Otis,  Cushing,  and  Thacher 
— to  seek  the  repeal  of  the  Sugar  Act  stated : 

If  taxes  are  laid  upon  us,  in  any  shape,  without  our  having  a legal 
representation  where  they  are  laid,  are  we  not  reduced  from  the 
character  of  free  subjects  to  the  miserable  state  of  tributary  slaves?11 

But  Otis’s  pamphlet  and  the  Boston  resolutions  contained  cer- 
tain loopholes.  Otis,  while  making  concessions  to  the  power  of 
Parliament,  had  ridiculed  Thomas  Pownall’s  pamphlet,  The 
Rights  of  the  Colonies  Stated  and  Proved,  which  had  also  advo- 
cated parliamentary  representation.12  The  Boston  resolution 
emphasized  that  the  people  of  the  town  were  opposed  to  the 
Sugar  Act  since  it  “annihilates  our  charter  right  to  govern  and 
tax  ourselves.”  Their  idea  of  having  legal  representation  in 
the  body  in  which  the  taxes  were  determined  was  merely  a de- 
mand for  the  continuation  of  tax-levying  by  the  provincial 
legislature.  Indeed,  Otis  and  other  members  of  the  popular 
faction  soon  realized  the  impracticability  of  parliamentary  rep- 
resentation, for  the  American  representatives  could  be  at  best 
only  a hopeless  minority  in  Commons;  any  bill  could  be  passed 
over  their  opposition,  and  they  would  have  no  hope  for  repeal. 
The  principle  that  only  the  provincial  legislatures  had  the  right 
to  levy  taxes  thus  became  the  rallying  cry  of  the  patriots,  voiced 
with  special  force  in  the  Stamp  Act  Congress  held  in  the  fol- 
lowing year. 


128 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 


H AVING  developed  his  ideas  to  this  point,  Bernard  was 
now  ready  to  reveal  the  glaring  fault  in  the  American  system 
of  government  and  to  suggest  his  plan  for  the  establishment 
of  a colonial  nobility  as  a means  of  remedy.  His  belief  in  the 
necessity  of  such  a measure  grew  out  of  a conviction  that  it 
would  balance  the  relationship  between  the  King  and  his  American 
subjects.  He  maintained  that  there  should  be  a third  “real  and 
distinct”  legislative  power,  “mediating  between  the  King  and 
the  People,  which  is  the  peculiar  excellence  of  the  British  Con- 
stitution.”13 

In  Massachusetts,  for  example,  the  Legislature  had  two 
branches,  the  House  of  Representatives,  the  members  of  which 
were  elected  by  the  town  meetings,  and  the  Council,  the  mem- 
bers of  which  were  elected  by  the  House  of  Representatives 
with  the  approval  of  the  Governor.  It  was  the  Council  that 
Bernard  wanted  to  reform.  The  Council  served  a dual  function: 
it  was  a legislative  body  wLich  passed  on  bills  originating  in 
the  House,  and  it  also  served  as  the  Governor’s  privy  council. 
As  a legislative  branch  it  met  under  the  direction  of  a president 
chosen  by  the  members.  During  the  first  six  years  of  Bernard’s 
tenure  Lieutenant-Governor  Hutchinson  was  Council  Presi- 
dent; when  the  Council  met  as  a privy  council,  usually  Bernard 
himself  presided.  The  two  branches  of  the  legislature  were 
greatly  affected  by  the  popular  will.  The  House  was  immedi- 
ately responsible  to  the  people,  since  its  members  had  to  face 
re-election  annually;  and  the  members  of  the  Council,  depend- 
ent upon  the  House,  were  indirectly  responsible  to  the  people. 
Only  the  possibility  that  the  Governor  might  negative  the 
election  of  a Councillor  remained  as  a check  upon  popular  ex- 
cesses; and  Bernard  felt  that  the  arrangement  added  “weight 
to  the  popular,  and  lighten  [ed]  the  royal  scale  : so  as  to  destroy 
the  balance  between  the  royal  and  popular  powers.”14  At  this 
time  the  Council  was  conservative,  and  most  of  the  Governor’s 
wishes  were  granted;  so  that  there  was  little  justification  for 
Bernard’s  distrust  of  the  Council’s  position;  but  the  attitude  of 
that  body  after  1766  proved  his  point. 

Through  the  establishment  of  an  American  nobility  the 


GOVERNOR  BERNARD  129 

King’s  authority  would  be  strengthened.  Bernard  made  the 
propositions : 

Although  America  is  not  now  (and  probably  will  not  be  for 
many  years  to  come)  ripe  enough  for  an  hereditary  Nobility;  yet 
it  is  now  capable  of  a Nobility  for  life. 

A Nobility  appointed  by  the  King  for  life,  and  made  independent, 
would  probably  give  strength  and  stability  to  the  American  gov- 
ernments, as  effectually  as  an  hereditary  Nobility  does  to  that  of 
Great  Britain. 

Such  a nobility  would  hold  a place  similar  to  that  of  the  House 
of  Lords  and  would  serve  the  same  purpose,  being  a buffer  be- 
tween the  popular  power  and  the  Crown. 

It  was  in  the  summer  of  1764  that  Bernard  sent  copies  of  his 
plan  to  Barrington,  Halifax,  and  Hillsborough,  but  it  took 
some  time  before  he  learned  what  these  influential  persons 
thought  of  his  work.  “I  have  nothing  to  add,”  he  wrote  to  Bar- 
rington, “but  that  the  Experience  of  explaining  to  the  Ameri- 
cans the  nature  of  their  own  rights  keeps  encreasing  as  new 
Pamphletts  on  the  popular  Side  are  coming  out.  If  your  Lord- 
ship  should  think  that  this  Paper  affords  a proper  System  for 
such  an  explaination,  I am  quite  prepared  to  enforce  & extend 
the  principal  propositions  thereof,  by  observations  of  my  own 
& conclusions  drawn  from  them  . . .”l6  Not  content  with  the 
distribution  of  the  essay,  he  asked  Barrington  to  attempt  “to 
procure  Lord  Mansfields  thoughts  upon  it.”  He  knew  that  if 
the  plan  were  approved  by  Mansfield,  Chief  Justice  of  the 
King’s  Bench  and  a staunch  supporter  of  the  royal  prerogative, 
his  success  would  be  assured. 

Early  in  October  Barrington  informed  Bernard  about  the 
death  of  his  wife,  and  made  a brief  comment  on  the  plan:  “I 
have  presented  your  work  to  Lord  Halifax  who  admired  it 
greatly,  and  says  it  is  the  best  thing  of  the  kind  by  much  that 
he  has  ever  read;  I am  persuaded  Lord  Hillsborough  will  not 
give  it  less  commendation.”17 

In  the  meantime  Bernard  had  written  a remarkable  letter  to 
Halifax,  suggesting  a scheme  to  change  the  boundaries  of  the 
New  England  colonies.  He  explained  that  the  division  of  New 


130  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

England  into  governments  of  suitable  size  would  not  be  diffi- 
cult “if  it  was  unimbarrassed  with  the  Politics  Prejudice  and 
Humours  of  the  People.”  Any  difficulty  that  might  arise  would 
grow  out  of  “the  bad  policy  of  establishing  republican  forms 
of  Government  in  the  British  Dominions.”18 

Bernard’s  plan  for  the  reorganization  of  the  colonies  on  a 
geographical  basis  is  interesting.  First  the  governments  of 
Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  should  be  dissolved;  the  new 
province  of  Massachusetts  would  then  consist  of  all  the  prov- 
ince, all  of  New  Hampshire  and  Rhode  Island,  and  all  of  Con- 
necticut east  of  the  Connecticut  River,  while  the  second  prov- 
ince would  consist  of  Maine  and  western  Acadia,  and  all  of  the 
land  farther  east  would  make  up  the  third  province.  The  Gov- 
ernor did  not  overlook  the  power  of  religious  differences.  By 
dividing  Connecticut,  two  potential  sources  of  dissension  would 
be  removed:  New  Haven,  the  seat  of  Yale  College,  Harvard’s 
Congregationalist  rival,  and  Hartford,  the  province’s  other  re- 
ligious center,  would  then  be  in  separate  colonies.  New  Hamp- 
shire was  good  Congregationalist  territory,  and  so  there  should 
be  no  religious  problem  there.  Only  Rhode  Island  with  its 
Quakers,  Baptists,  Congregationalists,  Episcopalians,  and 
Sephardic  Jews  might  be  difficult  to  absorb  into  the  new  colony. 
In  Bernard’s  opinion,  however,  religious  differences  had  be- 
come “so  entirely  subservient  to  politics,  that,  if  the  state  of 
the  Government  is  reformed,  and  a perfect  Toleration  secured, 
Religion  will  never  give  any  trouble.”  This  new  province  of 
Massachusetts  would  be,  he  thought,  an  ideal  place  to  attempt 
the  new  experiment,  which  Bernard  then  unfolded  to  Halifax. 

By  a rather  unusual  logic  Bernard  felt  certain  that  the  popu- 
lar faction  would  lose  little  by  the  adoption  of  his  plan.  He 
reasoned  that  to  allow  the  members  of  the  Legislative  Council 
to  be  removed  by  the  people,  who  had  no  hand  in  the  appoint- 
ment, would  be  unconstitutional.  Yet  the  people  would  object 
to  the  arbitrary  removal  of  the  Councillors  by  the  King.  The 
answer  to  this  problem  was  to  appoint  them  for  life,  and  thus 
they  would  be  independent  of  both  the  King  and  the  people. 
In  this  point  Bernard  certainly  displayed  an  amazing  naivete. 
By  keeping  the  membership  of  the  Council  dependent  pn  the 
House  of  Representatives,  the  people  of  the  province  had  an 


GOVERNOR  BERNARD 


I3I 

indirect  control ; and  the  advocates  of  popular  rights  could 
hardly  be  expected  to  give  up  this  power  in  exchange  for  two 
Councils,  one  selected  by  the  King  for  life  and  the  other  serving 
at  the  King’s  pleasure.  For  the  new  Council  obviously  would 
be  filled  with  royal  favorites,  men  recommended  by  the  Gov- 
ernor. The  plan,  if  adopted,  would  give  these  officials  a legisla- 
tive power  they  did  not  yet  possess.  In  England  it  was  not  un- 
usual for  a member  of  the  House  of  Lords  to  serve  as  a King’s 
appointee  in  an  administrative,  executive,  or  judicial  capacity, 
as  did  Halifax,  Hillsborough,  Shelburne,  and  Mansfield.  But 
even  the  possibility  of  serving  on  the  Privy  Council  could  not 
have  tempted  the  representatives  who  espoused  the  patriot 
cause.  Through  their  power  of  electing  the  members  of  the 
Council,  they  already  controlled  the  privy  council. 

Bernard  presented  to  Halifax  a project  to  create  an  inde- 
pendent class  of  royal  appointees.  The  various  appointments 
to  royal  posts  were  made  by  the  King  or  by  the  Governor  in 
the  name  of  the  King,  but  the  salaries  for  these  posts  were  paid 
by  the  provincial  legislature.  Bernard,  fearing  that  the  control 
of  the  purse-strings  gave  the  legislatures  too  much  power,  pro- 
posed that  a Civil  List  be  established  for  the  support  of  Crown 
officers.  He  who  in  his  plan  had  advocated  that  each  colonial 
government  should  be  self-supporting,  now  proposed  that  the 
home  government  provide  a subsidy  for  the  maintenance  of 
its  colonial  officers  “that  they  who  hold  the  reins  of  Govern- 
ment and  the  balance  of  Justice  may  no  way  be  subject  to 
popular  influence.”  Three  events  prompted  his  suggestion. 
During  the  Sugar  Act  controversy,  when  the  bill  for  appropri- 
ating money  for  the  Governor’s  salary  was  introduced,  a mem- 
ber of  the  House  said  that  if  the  British  Government  levied 
taxes  without  the  consent  of  the  House,  the  Ministry  ought  to 
pay  the  salary  of  the  Governor.  Hutchinson’s  additional  allow- 
ance as  Chief  Justice  was  withheld  by  the  House  after  an  argu- 
ment over  a money  bill  in  1762;  and  finally  Edmund  Trowbridge 
was  forced  to  wait  for  more  than  a year  for  the  salary  due  him 
as  Attorney-General.  These  threats  would  be  eliminated  by 
giving  guaranteed  salaries  to  royal  appointees  filling  admin- 
istrative offices. 

Bernard  hoped  that  the  King  would  present  his  plan  in  a 


132 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

royal  proclamation  to  which  “the  consent  of  the  colonies 
will  be  absolutely  necessary.”  If,  however,  the  plan  were  adopted 
by  the  King  in  Parliament,  the  consent  of  the  colonies  would 
not  be  necessary,  but  would  be  “very  expedient.”19 

Only  two  groups  of  people  would  have  been  pleased  by  Ber- 
nard’s plan:  the  royal  appointees,  Who  would  have  been  made 
members  of  one  of  the  Councils  and  thus  have  attained  noble 
rank,  and  their  friends,  relatives,  and  supporters.  The  popular 
faction,  already  protesting  parliamentary  encroachment  on 
colonial  rights,  would  have  resented  the  further  assertion  of 
the  royal  prerogative.  However,  there  were  many  lawyers, 
representatives  (particularly  from  western  Massachusetts), 
tradesmen,  and  former  soldiers  who  were  not  certain  of  their 
attitudes  on  particular  issues  of  the  day.  With  the  establish- 
ment of  a strong  royalist  branch  of  government,  and  with  the 
possibility  of  rewards  for  serving  it  made  apparent,  these  men 
might  have  been  converted  to  the  royalist  cause. 

Some  aspects  of  the  plan  might  have  been  put  into  effect  a 
few  years  earlier  by  Pownall,  since  there  was  little  antipathy 
toward  him,  but  the  pamphlets  and  newspapers  of  the  1760’s 
unmistakably  show  that  it  would  have  been  violently  fought 
at  this  time.  Men  like  Otis,  Thacher,  Sam  Adams,  John  Adams, 
Hancock,  and  Bowdoin  were  not  interested  in  English  rewards, 
nor  were  they  concerned  with  wealth,  which  some  already  had, 
and  which  the  others  might  have  earned  with  their  skills. 

Bernard’s  plan  for  a balanced  government  in  Massachusetts 
was  the  basis  of  only  one  of  the  many  controversies  over  the 
same  issue.  The  English  constitution,  as  Cadwallader  Colden, 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  New  York,  stated,  consisted  “in  a 
proper  balance  between  the  monarchical,  aristocratical,  and 
democratical  forms  of  government,”  and  that  principle  was  ex- 
tended as  far  as  possible  in  ten  of  the  North  American  colonies. 
Many  colonial  conservatives,  and  even  many  who  espoused  the 
popular  cause,  accepted  this  principle.  Only  in  Massachusetts, 
Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut  was  there  lacking  any  “aris- 
tocratical branch  of  the  provincial  government.” 

That  the  Council  in  Massachusetts  had  remained  conserva- 
tive and  for  the  most  part  subservient,  or  at  least  agreeable,  to 
the  Governor’s  wishes  was  only  Bernard’s  good  fortune.  The  ac- 


GOVERNOR  BERNARD 


133 


tion  of  the  House  in  its  control  of  Council  membership,  through 
forced  resignations  and  its  refusal  to  elect  members  opposed 
to  the  popular  faction,  was  to  provide  for  him  later  the  best  ar- 
gument that  the  government  of  the  province  was  getting  out 
of  hand. 

Jt^ERNARD  wrote  to  Barrington  in  December  1764  that  he 
was  “very  flattered  by  my  Lord  Halifax’s  approbation  of  the 
essay.”20  However,  Halifax’s  approbation  did  not  signify  that 
he  was  willing  to  execute  the  plan,  for  the  British  Ministry  had 
many  other  problems  to  consider  before  the  organization  of 
the  colonies  could  be  debated.  In  the  next  year,  with  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Rockingham  Cabinet,  Halifax  resigned  as  Secretary 
of  State  for  the  Southern  Department.  Bernard,  too,  had  his 
troubles  in  attempting  to  enforce  the  Stamp  Act,  and  so  little 
more  was  said  for  some  time  about  his  plan. 

In  November  1765  Bernard  wrote  again  to  Lord  Barrington, 
who  was  then  Secretary  of  War,  about  his  project.  Recent 
events  did  not  encourage  him  to  change  his  ideas.21  He  blamed 
the  neglect  of  his  plan  on  the  fact  that  “unfortunately  . . . the 
Business  of  the  Finances  took  the  Lead.”  His  letter,  which  is 
an  excellently  conceived  attack  upon  the  parliamentary  system 
of  taxing  the  colonies,  also  discussed  the  weaknesses  of  the 
royal  government  in  America,  the  influence  of  the  popular  fac- 
tion, and  the  lack  of  balance  between  the  two.  He  feared  that 
it  was  almost  too  late  to  reform  the  administration  of  the 
colonies.  Reaffirming  his  belief  that  colonial  representation  in 
Parliament  was  expedient,  he  advised  that  a system  of  par- 
liamentary representation  be  evolved  immediately  until  a set 
of  regulations  acceptable  to  the  colonies  and  Parliament  might 
be  established.  He  made  several  suggestions,  among  which 
were  that  colonial  legislatures  should  recognize  the  supremacy 
of  Parliament  and  that  the  laws  of  the  colonies  should  be  re- 
duced to  the  standards  of  the  laws  of  England.  He  also  reiter- 
ated the  need  of  a Civil  List  and  of  “a  true  Middle  Legislative 
Power,  appointed  by  the  King  for  Life  & separate  from  the 
privy  Council.” 

Throughout  all  his  altercations  with  the  House  Bernard  had 


134 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

found  comfort  in  the  loyalty  of  his  Council,  headed  by  Thomas 
Hutchinson.  In  1766  the  popular  faction  succeeded  in  elimin- 
ating nineteen  “friends  of  government,,  from  the  House  and 
six  from  the  Council  — Judges  Oliver  and  Lynde,  and  John 
Cushing,  Secretary  Oliver,  Attorney-General  Edmund  Trow- 
bridge, and  Thomas  Hutchinson.  Try  as  he  might,  Bernard 
could  not  induce  the  House  to  agree  to  the  election  of  the 
Crown  officers  to  the  Council,  and  he  negatived  many  of  the 
House’s  choices  each  year.  Rather  than  to  allow  the  Governor 
his  own  way,  the  House  refused  to  fill  the  positions  and  at  one 
time  twelve  of  the  twenty-eight  were  vacant. 

The  House  and  Council  concurred  in  rejecting  many  of  Ber- 
nard’s demands  and  in  failing  to  adopt  laws  that  he  desired, 
thus  rendering  him  almost  helpless.  The  Governor  continued 
to  complain  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  to  Barrington,  Shelburne, 
Hillsborough,  the  Pownalls,  and  others  of  influence,  calling 
attention  to  the  abuses  of  the  House.  To  Shelburne,  who  suc- 
ceeded Halifax,  he  explained  many  of  his  ideas.  Shelburne  ex- 
pressed his  thanks,  but  was  unable,  or  unwilling,  to  put  the 
plan  into  practice. 

Bernard  was  greatly  upset  that  the  Council,  once  so  coop- 
erative as  a legislative  and  privy  council,  had  become  a tool  of 
the  popular  party.  In  a long  letter  to  Pownall,  marked  private, 
he  referred  to  the  introduction  of  royal  troops  and  stated  that 
the  government  was  now  protected  but  had  “not  yet  recovered 
much  of  its  former  energy.”  This  energy,  according  to  him, 
might  never  be  restored  under  the  existing  situation.  A com- 
promise was  desirable  and  possible,  if  the  work  of  reform  were 
started  at  once, 

making  that  necessary  amendment  of  the  constitution  of  this  Gov- 
ernment, the  putting  the  Appointment  of  the  Council  in  the  King’s 
hands;  it  will  be  an  Event  most  happy  for  this  Province  . . . With 
this  alteration  I do  believe  the  Disorder  of  this  Government  will 
be  remedied  and  the  Authority  of  it  fully  restored.  Without  it 
there  will  be  perpetual  Occasion  to  resort  to  Expedients,  the  con- 
tinual Inefficacy  of  which  will  speak  in  the  words  of  Scripture, 
“You  are  careful  and  troubled  about  many  things  but  one  thing 
is  needful”  . . ,22 

In  the  meantime  the  Governor,  eager  to  institute  a system 


GOVERNOR  BERNARD 


135 


of  colonial  nobility,  was  not  averse  to  procuring  such  honors 
for  himself.  Largely  through  Barrington’s  influence,  Hillsbor- 
ough, the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies,  obtained  the  title 
of  Baronet  for  him  in  1769.  At  about  the  same  time  he  was  re- 
called to  England,  ostensibly  to  advise  the  King  and  Ministry 
concerning  conditions  in  the  colony. 

li/VEN  in  the  last  year  of  his  administration  Bernard  con- 
tinued to  urge  the  British  authorities  to  reorganize  the  American 
governments.  Late  in  1768  he  recommended  again  to  Hills- 
borough that  a system  of  fixed  salaries  for  Crown  appointees 
be  established  and  that  the  Civil  List  be  set  up  by  the  Ministry.23 

On  February  4,  1769,  shortly  before  his  recall,  he  wrote  an- 
other forceful  letter  to  Hillsborough.  The  idea  of  a royally- 
appointed  Council  (which  was  actually  established  in  Massa- 
chusetts in  1774)  was  evidently  gaining  favor  in  England,  and 
the  Governor  felt  that  some  of  the  members  should  be  excluded, 
at  least  temporarily.  On  the  other  hand,  the  members  who 
were  eliminated  in  1766  — the  Lieutenant  Governor,  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Province,  and  the  Judges  — should  be  restored 
immediately.  The  less  obnoxious  members  might  be  retained, 
and  from  among  the  other  royal  officers  — the  Judge  of  Ad- 
miralty, the  Attorney-General,  the  Solicitor  General,  and  some 
of  the  Commissioners  of  the  Customs,  for  example  — the 
Crown  could  select  outstanding  defenders  of  the  prerogative. 
Cautiously,  Bernard  suggested  that  the  naming  of  Customs 
Commissioners  to  the  Council  be  postponed  until  the  distur- 
bances had  subsided.  Since  the  organization  of  the  new  Coun- 
cil would  take  time,  he  thought  it  advisable  to  fill  only  twelve 
of  the  posts,  and  the  remainder  only  after  the  prospective  can- 
didates proved  that  they  merited  the  appointments. 

Eventually,  Bernard  hoped,  the  “middle  legislature”  might 
be  organized  as  a separate  body,  its  members  appointed  by  the 
King  for  life,  to  be  removed  only  for  malconduct  adjudged  by 
this  Upper  House,  with  the  consent  of  the  Governor,  or  by  the 
King  in  his  Privy  Council.24  The  Privy  Council  of  the  province 
under  the  new  development  would  be  composed  of  members 
of  the  House  of  Representatives,  members  of  the  new  middle 


136  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

legislature,  and  “upon  some  Occasion  of  Gentlemen  who  have 
Seats  in  Neither.” 

The  Governor  was  careful  to  point  out  the  possibilities  of 
patronage.  The  King’s  position,  by  the  new  power  of  appoint- 
ment, would  be  even  more  important  and  would  “become  . . . one  of 
the  principal  Means  of  balancing  the  Weight  of  the  People.” 
Perhaps  this  power  could  not  be  carried  too  far  in  America, 
he  agreed,  but  it  was  possible  to  carry  it  farther  than  it  had 
been  up  to  that  time.  With  the  increase  in  patronage,  the  King 
would  be  able  to  make  a distinction  between  the  friends  of  the 
government  and  the  popular  faction.  He  explained  that  “this 
method  would  multiply  the  Honors  conferred  by  his  Majesty 
at  least  five-fold  in  every  Province  without  making  them 
cheap.”  Finally,  he  suggested  that  each  member  of  the  Upper 
House  should  be  given  the  title  of  Baron,  which  “is  no  more 
than  a Lord  of  Manor  in  England  has  a Right  to,  whose  Court 
is  now  called  Curia  Baronis”25 

Ten  days  later,  Bernard  forwarded  the  names  of  twelve  men 
who  should  be  named  to  this  first  Council.26  Thomas  Hutchin- 
son headed  the  list.  Andrew  Oliver,  John  Cushing,  Peter  Oli- 
ver, Edmund  Trowbridge,  and  Benjamin  Lynde,  all  of  whom 
had  been  rejected  annually  since  1766,  were  also  on  it.  The 
other  six  whom  Bernard  suggested  for  appointment  were  Thomas 
Flucker,  Nathaniel  Ropes,  Timothy  Paine,  James  Russell,  Ben- 
jamin Lincoln,  and  Thomas  Hubbard,  all  members  of  the 
Council  in  1769.  Flucker  succeeded  Andrew  Oliver  as  Secre- 
tary of  the  Province  in  1774;  he  remained  a staunch  loyalist 
despite  the  fact  that  James  Bowdoin,  the  President  of  the  Coun- 
cil and  a leader  of  the  popular  faction,  was  his  brother-in-law, 
and  Henry  Knox  later  married  his  daughter.  Nathaniel  Ropes 
became  a Judge  of  the  Superior  Court  in  1772  and  served  until 
his  death  in  1774.  Timothy  Paine  of  Worcester  was  named  one 
of  the  Mandamus  Councillors  in  1774  but  did  not  take  the  oath; 
although  his  sympathy  was  with  the  King,  he  did  not  leave  the 
province  but  remained  in  Worcester  during  the  war.  James 
Russell  of  Charlestown,  too,  was  named  to  the  Mandamus 
Council  in  1774  and  did  not  take  the  oath;  two  of  his  sons  were 
driven  out  of  the  province  as  loyalists,  but  he  remained  in 
Charlestown.  Benjamin  Lincoln  of  Hingham  was  a member  of 


GOVERNOR  BERNARD  137 

the  popular  faction  and  served  as  a Brigadier  General  in  the 
Revolution. 

Bernard’s  plan,  of  course,  was  never  adopted.  His  correspon- 
dence with  Hillsborough,  fortunately  for  him,  was  not  among 
the  letters  published  by  Edes  and  Gill  in  1769.  The  plan  did  not 
reach  the  American  public  until  the  publication  in  1774  of  his 
Select  Letters , which  contained  as  an  Appendix  the  “Principles 
of  Law  and  Polity.”  The  volume  included  some  of  the  letters 
to  Pownall  and  Barrington  with  emendations  and  omissions. 
But  by  this  time  the  Bernard  letters  met  with  almost  no  re- 
sponse in  Massachusetts,  so  busy  was  the  popular  faction  in 
other  affairs. 

Yet,  to  a limited  extent,  some  of  Bernard’s  ideas  were  realized. 
The  Townshend  Acts  of  1767  provided  that  a part  of  the  income 
from  the  duties  should  be  used  for  the  support  of  certain  royal 
appointees,  of  whom  Hutchinson  in  his  capacity  as  Chief  Jus- 
tice was  one.  Bernard  did  succeed  in  1770  and  1771  in  inducing 
the  British  Ministry  to  make  appropriations  guaranteeing 
Hutchinson’s  salary  when  he  succeeded  to  the  governorship. 
The  Massachusetts  Government  Act  of  1774  called  for  the  ap- 
pointment by  the  King  of  the  Massachusetts  Mandamus  Coun- 
cil. There  may  be  some  significance  in  the  fact  that  Bernard 
published  his  letters  and  his  plan  in  that  same  year.  He  thought, 
perhaps,  that  the  publication  would  raise  him  in  the  estimation 
of  the  Ministry. 


Notes 


1.  The  essay  was  first  published  in  Bernard’s  Select  Letters  on  the  Trade 
and  Government  of  America;  and  the  Principles  of  Law  and  Polity,  (London, 
1774).  The  Rare  Book  Department  of  the  Boston  Public  Library  has  a copy 
of  this  book,  as  well  as  many  other  rare  items  relating  to  Governor  Bernard. 
Among  them  are  Letters  to  the  Ministry  from  Governor  Bernard,  General  Gage 
and  Commodore  Hood  (Boston,  1769);  and  Letters  to  the  Right  Honorable  the 
Earl  of  Hillsborough  from  Governor  Bernard,  General  Gage,  and  the  Honorable 
His  Majesty's  Council  for  the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay  (Boston,  1769). 
Two  works  show  the  antagonism  against  Bernard  in  the  colonies:  An  Address 
to  a Provincial  Bashazv  (Boston,  1769)  and  An  Elegy  to  the  Infamous  Memory 


138  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

of  Sr  F — B — (Boston,  1769).  The  Rare  Book  Department  also  has  three 
autograph  manuscripts  signed  by  the  Governor. 

2.  Bernard’s  choice  of  Barrington  as  an  intermediary  between  him  and 
Halifax  was  a wise  one,  for  Barrington  considered  Halifax  “one  of  the  oldest 
& most  intimate  friends  ...  in  the  world.”  Bernard  Papers  (Harvard  College 
Library)  x,  296. 

3.  The  letter  to  Barrington  is  *6  in  the  Select  Letters.  The  letter  to  Pow- 
nall  is  #7. 

4.  Select  Letters,  p.  68. 

5.  Ibid.,  Principle  16. 

6.  Ibid.,  Principle  44. 

7.  Ibid.,  Principle  48. 

8.  Ibid.,  Principles  48,  45. 

9.  Ibid.,  Principles  61-65. 

10.  James  Otis,  The  Rights  of  the  British  Colonies  Asserted  mid  Proved 
(Boston,  1764)  p.59.  The  Rare  Book  Department  of  the  Boston  Public  Library 
has  a copy  of  this  rare  work. 

11.  Instructions  of  the  Town  of  Boston  (Boston,  1764).  There  is  also  a 
London  edition  of  this  same  year,  frequently  bound  with  Otis’s  work. 

12.  Thomas  Pownall,  The  Rights  of  the  Colonies  Stated  and  Proved  (Lon- 
don, 1765).  Pownall  repeated  the  principle  of  parliamentary  representation  in 
his  Speech  in  Favour  of  America  (London?  1774?)  and  his  Administration  of 
the  British  Colonies  (London,  1774).  The  Boston  Public  Library  has  copies 
of  the  last  two  items. 

13.  Select  Letters,  Principle  86. 

14.  Ibid.,  Principle  87. 

15.  Ibid.,  Principles  88  and  89. 

16.  Bernard  to  Barrington,  July  23,  1764;  Bernard  Papers,  III,  236. 

17.  Barrington  to  Bernard,  October  3,  1764;  ibid.,  X,  195. 

18.  Bernard’s  letter  to  Halifax  is  in  Volume  41  in  the  State  Paper  Office, 
London.  A copy,  made  on  November  9,  1764,  is  found  in  Jared  Sparks’s  com- 
pilation, “British  Papers  Relating  to  the  American  Revolution”  Harvard 
College  Library,  II,  39-42. 

19.  There  is  nothing  in  the  Massachusetts  Charter  of  1691  to  indicate 
that  the  legislature  was  given  the  privilege  of  approving  or  rejecting  the  proc- 
lamations of  the  King. 

20.  Bernard  to  Barrington,  December  27,  1764;  Bernard  Papers,  III,  271. 

21.  Bernard  to  Barrington,  November  23,  1765;  ibid.,  V,  47. 

22.  Bernard  to  John  Pownall,  November  23,  1768;  ibid.,  VI,  168. 

23.  Bernard  to  Hillsborough,  December  12,  1768;  ibid.,  VII,  115. 

24.  There  is  a similarity  between  this  plan  and  the  idea  of  the  House  of 
Lords. 

25.  The  letter  is  dated  February  4,  1769;  Bernard  Papers,  VII,  132-138. 

26.  Bernard  to  Hillsborough,  Postscript  to  letter  of  February  4,  1769, 
dated  February  14,  1769;  ibid.,  VII,  140. 


The  Keepsake  in  Nineteenth-Century  Art 

By  FRANK  WEITENKAMPF 

PERHAPS  the  keepsake  has  been  treated  just  a bit  slight- 
ingly in  our  day  and  is  worth  a re-examination  and  a pos- 
sible revision  of  judgment. 

The  nineteenth-century  keepsake  flowered  most  in  England 
and  the  United  States.  France,  after  its  seventeenth-century 
anthologies  and  eighteenth-century  Almanack  des  Muses , had 
in  the  nineteenth  century  counterparts  of  the  English-language 
keepsakes  such  as  Album  Litter  air  e (1832),  UEmeraude  (1832), 
Le  Talisman  (1832),  Ne  m’ oubliez  pas  (1837),  Le  Brick , Album 
de  Mer  (1836),  Consolation  et  Esperance : Keepsake  Religieux 
(1836),  and  others.  These  little  books,  some  in  satin  bindings 
and  slip  cases,  displayed  an  impressive  list  of  authors : Lamar- 
tine, Nodier,  Dumas,  Gautier,  Sainte-Beuve,  Heine,  Sue,  Hugo, 
Chenier.  And  Germany  followed  its  eighteenth-century  Mu- 
senalmanach  with  early  nineteenth-century  Taschenbuch  zum 
geselligen  Vergniigen , Vergissmeinnicht,  Aurora , and  the  like, 
with  contributions  by  prominent  writers. 

According  to  Walter  Thornbury,  Alaric  Watts  is  said  to 
have  proposed  “to  start  an  annual  volume  (half  art,  half  liter- 
ature), in  imitation  of  the  German  pocket-books,”  thus  origin- 
ating the  keepsake.  And  Howard  Mumford  Jones,  in  his  Ideas 
in  America  (1944),  remarks  that  “the  French  and  British  an- 
nuals were  the  models  of  the  American  gift  books.”  But,  what- 
ever influence  continental  European  annuals  may  have  had  on 
the  English-language  product,  the  latter  was  essentially  the 
result  of  British  and  American  taste,  talent,  and  enterprise, 
with  a character  quite  its  own. 

There  was  also  counter-influence  on  France.  Frederic  Lach- 
evre  wrote  in  his  Bibliographic  des  keepsakes  et  autres  recueils 
collectifs  de  la  periode  romantique , 1823-48 : “The  Keepsakes  . . . 
were  a response  to  a mode  come  from  England,  and  which  as- 
sociated a truly  artistic  effort  with  interesting  texts.  The 
opinion  then  prevalent  acknowledged  the  decided  superiority 
of  the  English  from  the  point  of  view  of  illustration  and  en- 


139 


140 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

graving,  claiming  for  the  French  a less  marked  superiority  on  the 
literary  side.  Hence  the  fusion  of  English  engravings  with  French 
texts.”  British  engravings  appeared  in  French  publications  such 
as  Le  Diamantj  orne  de  seise  gravures  anglaises  and  Keepsake  Fran- 
gais  for  1831.  The  latter  has  British  engravings  after  British 
artists,  and  French  ones  from  French  designs;  so  that  Turner, 
Boys,  and  Johannot  are  joined  in  a pretty  mixture  of  styles. 
American  plates  also  found  their  way  to  French  publishers. 
The  Keepsake  Americain  for  1831,  issued  in  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, and  Paris,  with  American  engravings  mostly  after 
British  designs,  states  in  its  preface:  “We  have  long  felt  the 
desire  to  make  an  attempt  to  give  our  well-beloved  public  some 
fine  books  in  the  manner  of  those  rich,  agreeable,  and  interest- 
ing English  galleries  in  which  all  the  art  of  the  designer  and 
all  the  skill  of  the  engraver,  united  with  select  pieces  by  con- 
temporary celebrities,  concur  to  enchant  both  the  mind  and 
the  eye  of  the  reader.”  Next  year  it  was  announced:  “Last  year 
we  entitled  our  Keepsake  Americain  because  our  engravings 
came  from  New  York.  This  time  we  have  searched  the  port- 
folios of  the  artists  of  London  . . 

And  so  to  the  English-language  product.  Henry  Seidel  Can- 
by,  Arthur  Waugh,  and  others  of  our  day  have  described  the 
keepsakes  and  the  larger  “gift-books”  (it  is  not  always  clear 
which  is  meant)  as  ornaments  for  the  parlor  table.  A half-truth, 
really.  Yes,  the  advertisement  of  at  least  one  gift-book  offered 
it  as  “an  elegant  accession  to  the  parlor  table,”  and  Frederick 
W.  Faxon  has  pointed  out  that  “the  English  publications  were 
known  as  ‘Drawing-room  Annuals.’  ” But  they  had  their  read- 
ing public  — even  the  adverse  criticisms  of  their  day  show  that 
— and  can  hardly  be  classed  simply  as  ornaments,  like  alabaster 
clocks  or  Rogers  groups.  The  announcement  of  Leitch  Ritchie’s 
A Journey  to  St.  Petersburg  (Heath’s  Picturesque  Annual,  1836) 
reads : 

The  former  volumes  of  the  Picturesque  Annual,  although  aspir- 
ing to  a permanent  place  in  the  library,  were  yet  written  with  some 
reference  to  the  character  of  drawing-room  table  books  stamped 
upon  them  by  their  gorgeous  bindings  and  exquisite  engravings. 
When  the  author,  however,  undertook  to  travel  in  Russia  — a 
country  about  which  so  many  conflicting  opinions  have  been  pub- 


THE  KEEPSAKE 


141 

lished  — he  thought  that  he  would  best  consult  the  advantage  of 
the  public  by  making  his  book  a work  entirely  of  information  . . . 

Noted  British  authors  contributed  to  the  keepsakes,  includ- 
ing some  who,  “in  a state  of  revolt  against  the  debased  ideals 
of  their  time,”  as  G.  M.  Trevelyan  puts  it  in  his  English  Social 
History,  scored  the  weak  features  of  these  publications.  There 
were  Dickens,  Thackeray,  Bulwer-Lytton,  Scott,  Coleridge, 
Wordsworth,  Southey,  Lamb,  Mary  Mitford,  Leigh  Hunt,  the 
Howitts,  Macaulay,  Byron,  Moore,  Landor,  Campbell,  Praed, 
Hood,  Ruskin,  Theodore  Hook,  the  Brownings,  Tennyson, 
Bryan  W.  Proctor,  Disraeli,  Douglas  Jerrold,  Sheridan  Knowles, 
Shelley  and  Alaric  Watts.  Most  of  these  are  named  by  Faxon, 
who  notes  among  American  writers  for  American  annuals 
Hawthorne,  Poe,  Whittier,  Edward  Everett,  Mrs  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe,  Cooper,  Irving,  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  and 
others.  Add  Emerson,  who  found  nothing  worth-while  in  keep- 
sakes and  wrote  for  The  Diadem  of  1846,  which  the  New  York 
Tribune  at  the  time  pronounced  “the  most  gorgeous  of  Ameri- 
can annuals  and  . . . the  most  tasteful.” 

w E now  come  to  our  main  topic,  the  illustrations.  The 
pictures  in  the  keepsakes  are  likely  to  hold  our  main  interest 
today,  as  they  may  have  done  for  the  public  of  their  time. 
They  probably  cost  more  than  the  text.  Lachevre  noted  that 
The  Amulet,  edited  by  S.  C.  Hall,  announced  that  one  of  the 
engravings  in  its  fifth  volume  (1830)  cost  145  guineas  and 
another  180;  and  Kathleen  Knox  in  Gentleman's  Magazine,  June 
1902,  tells  us  that  the  second  Keepsake,  the  one  for  1829,  cost 
no  less  than  11,000  guineas!  There  must  have  been  a good- 
sized  public  willing  to  pay.  (For  the  United  States,  Ralph 
Thompson,  in  his  American  Literary  Annuals  & Gift  Books : 
1825-1865,  has  information  about  cost  of  engraving  and  profits 
of  publishers.) 

Steel  engraving  (“elegant”  and  “highly  finished,”  say  title- 
pages  and  advertisements)  ruled  supreme  in  keepsakes  and 
gift-books;  wood  engraving  and  lithography  must  have  seemed 
too  common  for  such  genteel  publications.  Dickens  in  Bleak 
House  and  Bulwer-Lytton  in  The  Caxtons  had  their  fling  at  the 


142 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

lackadaisical  character  of  the  plates  in  these  recherche  products, 
at  the  smirks  of  the  ladies  “and  their  male  counterparts,  ef- 
feminately exquisite.”  In  George  Eliot's  Middlemarch  a young 
suitor  “had  brought  the  last  ‘Keepsake/  the  gorgeous  watered- 
silk  publication  which  marked  modern  progress  at  that  time 
...  to  look  over  it  with  her,  dwelling  on  the  ladies  and  gentle- 
men with  shiny  copper-plate  cheeks  and  copper-plate  smiles  . . 
Goethe  was  more  lenient;  it  is  recorded  that  on  January  30, 
1830,  he  showed  Eckermann  the  English  keepsake  for  that  year, 
noting  the  “very  fine  copper-plates.”  Emerson,  scoring  the 
text,  wrote  of  “one  of  those  souvenirs,  bound  in  gold  vellum, 
enriched  with  delicate  engravings  on  thick  hot-pressed  paper, 
fit  for  the  hands  of  ladies  and  princes,  with  nothing  in  it  worth 
reading  or  remembering.”  That  is  a kind  word  for  the  plates, 
about  which  two  Frenchmen  also  had  their  say,  descriptive 
rather  than  critical.  Balzac  in  Eugenie  Grandet  speaks  of  “the 
emotions  of  delicate  pleasure  given  to  a young  man  by  the 
contemplation  of  the  fanciful  figures  of  females  drawn  by 
Westall  and  engraved  by  Finden,  in  the  English  keepsakes.” 
And  in  Flaubert’s  Madame  Bovary  young  Emma,  in  a convent, 
surreptitiously  reads  keepsakes,  “delicately  handling  their  fine 
satin  bindings.”  Emma  “trembled,  her  breath  raising  the  tissue 
paper  of  the  engravings,  which  rose  half-folded  and  fell  back 
softly  on  the  page.” 

Much  of  the  criticism  was  apparently  aimed  at  the  larger, 
more  pretentious  gift-books,  in  the  engravings  of  which  sim- 
pering sentimentality  was  etiolated,  and  artistic  incompe- 
tence made  more  obvious  by  being  thinly  spread  over  plates  bigger 
than  in  the  keepsakes.  There  was  indeed  a sameness  in  these 
conceptions  of  female  beauty,  with  “raven  hair,  delicate  ex- 
tremities,” and  all  the  rest  of  it.  (George  Meredith,  in  Diana 
of  the  Crossways.)  And  Aldous  Huxley  speaks  ( Essays  New 
and  Old ) of  “the  egg-shaped  face,  the  slick  hair,  the  swan-like 
neck,  the  champagne-bottle  shoulders.”  “Des  anglaises  a pro- 
fil  de  Keepsake,”  wrote  Flaubert  in  L’Education  sentimentale . 

The  most  detailed  appraisal  is  found  in  Thackeray’s  review 
of  “a  parcel  of  the  little  gilded  books”  in  Eraser’s  Magazine  for 
December  1837.  He  wrote: 

There  are  the  Friendship’s  Offering  embossed,  and  the  Forget  Me 


“The  Parting,”  from  Gems  of  Beauty,  London,  1839 


M3 


THE  KEEPSAKE 


*45 

Not  in  morocco;  Jennings’s  Landscape  in  dark  green,  and  the 
Christian  Keepsake  in  pea;  Gems  of  Beauty  in  shabby  green  calico, 
and  Flowers  of  Loveliness  in  tawdry  red  woollen ; moreover,  the 
Juvenile  Scrap-book  for  good  little  boys  and  girls;  and  among  a 
host  of  others,  and  greatest  of  all,  the  Book  of  Gems  . . . Now  with 
the  exception  of  the  last  . . . and  of  Jennings’s  J.andscape  Annual, 
which  contains  the  admirable  designs  of  Mr.  Roberts,  nothing  can 
be  more  trumpery  than  the  whole  collection  — as  works  of  art,  we 
mean.  They  tend  to  encourage  bad  taste  in  the  public,  bad  en- 
graving, and  worse  painting.  As  to  their  literary  pretensions  . . . 
such  a display  of  miserable  mediocrity  ...  is  hardly  to  be  found 
in  any  other  series  . . . The  poetry  is  quite  worthy  of  the  pictures, 
and  a little  sham  sentiment  is  employed  to  illustrate  a little  sham 
art. 

One  of  those  who  supplied  verses  for  the  pictures  was  the 
Countess  of  Blessington,  who  edited  the  Keepsake  during  1841- 
50  and  did  “fanciful  verses”  for  Gems  of  Beauty  (1839).  Letitia 
Elizabeth  Landon  and  Mary  Howitt  similarly  furnished  “poeti- 
cal illustrations”  for  the  annual  Fisher’s  Drawing  Room  Scrap- 
Book.  The  reversal  of  the  usual  relation  between  text  and 
illustration  is  neatly  indicated  also  by  the  title  of  George  Bax- 
ter’s The  Pictorial  Album  or  Cabinet  of  Paintings  . . . With  Il- 
lustrations in  Verse  and  Prose  (1837).  These  rhyme-smiths  were 
parodied  in  Fiddle-Faddle  Fashion-Book,  which  William  Powell 
Frith  in  his  life  of  John  Leech  calls  “a  whimsical  satire  on  the 
fopperies  and  literary  absurdities  of  the  period.” 

Now  then  to  the  other  side  of  the  story.  The  Book  of  Gems 
(1836,  1837)  which  Thackeray  excepted  from  condemnation, 
was  an  anthology  of  British  authors  back  to  Chaucer,  edited 
by  S.  C.  Hall.  The  artists  included  Lawrence,  Etty,  Mulready, 
Beechey,  Cooper,  Creswick,  Boys,  D.  O.  Hill,  and  Flaxman.  A 
respectable  showing,  but  there  was  added  the  inevitable  and 
namby-pamby  E.  T.  Parris.  His  work,  and  that  of  the  Misses 
L.  Sharpe  and  F.  Corbeaux,  and  others  of  their  kind,  stood  out 
and  invited  adverse  criticism.  The  hodge-podge  of  good  and 
bad  illustrations  is  not  infrequently  found  in  the  same  book. 
In  Heath’s  Gallery  of  British  Engravings  (1836)  J.  M.  W. 
Turner,  R.  P.  Bonington,  Thomas  Lawrence,  G.  S.  Newton, 
and  C.  Stanfield  rub  shoulders  with  inferior  artists.  And  in 
Baxter’s  The  Pictorial  Album  or  Cabinet  of  Paintings  — a pio* 


146 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

duct  of  pretentious  elegance  — together  with  figure  pieces  by 
Westall,  Corbeaux,  and  Sharpe  are  also  landscapes,  far  ex- 
ceeding them  in  worth  and  interest,  by  Samuel  Prout  and 
George  Barnard. 

Landscape  is  the  specialty  in  which,  on  the  whole,  the 
gift-book  made  its  best  showing.  That  is  why  Thackeray’s 
mention  of  David  Roberts  is  significant.  There  is  plenty  of  ma- 
terial to  prove  this  in  such  publications  as  Jennings’s  Landscape 
Annual  and  Heath’s  Picturesque  Annual,  both  issued  serially  in 
the  ’thirties.  Turner  played  a particularly  important  part  in  the 
landscape  illustration  of  books,  for  instance  in  Rogers’s  Italy 
(1830)  and  in  Finden’s  Landscape  and  Portrait  Illustrations  of 
Byron  (1837).  The  able  engravers  put  remarkably  delicate 
burin  work  into  these  small  plates.  The  work  of  Turner  and 
other  landscape  artists,  in  such  books,  served  and  fostered  an 
apparent  interest  of  the  public  in  views  of  the  homeland  and 
of  foreign  countries.  And  futhermore,  Thornbury,  in  his  The 
Life  of  J.  M.  W.  Turner,  tells  us  that  “about  1824  the  frivolous 
keepsake  mania,  though  originating  mere  literary  confection- 
ery gave  an  impetus  to  modern  art.” 

In  the  United  States  as  in  England  good  work,  in  text  and 
illustrations,  was  mingled  with  the  poor.  “Between  the  covers 
of  American  gift  books,”  Ralph  Thompson  writes  “.  . . ap- 
peared some  of  the  best  of  contemporary  literature  and  con- 
temporary art.”  The  development  of  this  form  of  publication 
brought  about  unmistakably  American  traits.  That  appears 
notably  in  the  plates  which  our  painters,  draughtsmen,  and  en- 
gravers produced  for  these  annuals.  Besides  reproductions  of 
British  paintings,  there  were  also  paintings  of  American  life 
and  scenery;  and  it  is  these  that  are  significant.  They  show  a 
certain  robust  matter-of-factness  contrasting  with  the  senti- 
mentality transplanted  from  London.  As  in  other  fields,  the 
young  nation  was  emerging  into  a character  of  its  own,  which 
showed  through  any  veneer  of  foreign  taste  and  tradition. 

Paintings  and  drawings  by  Thomas  Birch,  A.  B.  Durand, 
Thomas  Cole,  Thomas  Doughty,  R.  W.  Weir,  Henry  Inman, 
W.  G.  Wall,  Joshua  Shaw,  W.  S.  Mount,  J.  G.  Chapman,  and 


THE  KEEPSAKE 


147 


J.  G.  Clonney  were  reproduced  in  line  engravings  on  steel  by 
capable  craftsmen  such  as  A.  B.  Durand,  James  Smillie,  J. 
Cheney,  J.  A.  Rolph,  and  G.  W.  Hatch.  They  put  before  the 
public  scenes  from  everyday  life,  historical  events,  and,  of 
special  importance  as  in  England,  landscape  views.  Various 
parts  of  America  were  pictured:  Niagara,  the  Delaware  Water 
Gap,  the  Hudson,  Schuylkill  and  Juanita  Rivers,  the  Catskills, 
Trenton  Falls,  Passaic  Falls.  Noted  cemeteries  also  were  de- 
scribed and  pictured  in  gift-books.  There  were  even  landscapes 
without  local  interest  or  emphasis,  appealing  simply  to  a love 
of  nature:  Doughty’s  “A  lake  scene”  ( The  Atlantic  Souvenir , 
1828)  and  Inman’s  “Storm  coming  on”  ( Magnolia , 1837). 

So  the  plates  in  keepsakes  helped  to  bring  American  art  to 
the  public.  As  Merle  Curti  notes  in  his  The  Roots  of  American 
Loyalty , “A  wider  public  was  reached  through  elaborate  gift- 
books,  beautifully  embellished  with  American  views.”  And 
Harold  E.  Dickinson  believes  that  John  Neal’s  remarks  in  The 
Yankee  (1828-1829)  about  the  plates  in  The  Token  and  The 
Atlantic  Souvenir  “must  have  led  many  a reader  to  pick  up  the 
books  themselves  for  a closer  inspection  of  the  pictures  they 
contained.” 

A swarm  of  these  genteel  annuals  appeared  in  our  land  — 
“between  1825  and  1865  more  than  a thousand,”  Ralph  Thomp- 
son affirms  in  his  American  Literary  Annuals  & Gift  Books  (1936). 
They  had  flowery  titles,  such  as  Magnolia,  Rose  of  Sharon,  etc. 
Some  were  fitted  to  season,  as  The  Gift,  a Christmas  and  New 
Year's  Present  for  1836  and  The  Keepsake  of  Friendship,  a Christ- 
mas and  New  Year's  Annual  (Boston  1849-55).  Possible  restric- 
tion of  sales  to  season  seemed  to  be  avoided  in  Gift  for  all  Seasons 
(i853)  and  Affection's  Gift,  a Christmas,  New  Year  and  Birthday 
Present  for  1833.  Various  classes  were  served:  the  ladies  ( The 
American  Ladies  Pocket  Book,  The  Ladies'  Casket,  The  Lady's 
Album)  ; the  religious  ( The  Religious  Souvenir,  The  Christian 
Keepsake  and  Missionary  Annual))  young  people;  mourners; 
brides;  mothers;  pastors;  and  the  abolitionists.  Jacksonian  de- 
mocracy and  the  keepsake  were  linked  in  an  odd  combination 
in  The  Jackson  Wreath  (1829).  Even  the  female  mill  workers 
at  Lowell,  Massachusetts,  during  1840-45  issued  a Lowell  Of- 
fering, written  “exclusively”  by  them,  and  compared  favorably 


148 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

with  British  annuals  by  Charles  Dickens  in  his  American  Notes. 

In  the  many  years  of  its  popularity  the  keepsake  was  con- 
temporary with  the  soul-stirring  imaginings  of  William  Blake 
and  the  dainty  designs  of  Moritz  Retzsch;  with  authors  as  dif- 
ferent in  outlook  as  Goethe,  Balzac,  Scott,  Dickens,  Irving, 
Cooper,  Thackeray,  Bulwer-Lytton,  and  Emerson;  with  Gothic 
romanticism  and  melodramatic  historicalness;  with  the  fashion 
of  caricature  illustration  by  Cruikshank  and  Phiz,  and  the 
straightforward  realism  of  Gilbert  and  Darley;  with  the  humor 
of  Hook  or  Leech,  and  the  strained  sprightliness  of  Pierce 
Egan;  with  inane  depictions  of  “genteel”  humanity  and  Dau- 
mier’s vigorous  facing  of  life.  The  nineteenth  century  had  a 
remarkable  variety.  It  will  not  do  to  dismiss  it  with  airy  al- 
lusions to  the  Victorian  age.  “We  must  not  think  of  these 
seventy  years  as  having  a fixed  likeness  one  to  another,”  Tre- 
velyan warned. 

The  keepsake  represents  a particularly  characteristic  phase 
of  the  taste  of  the  time,  and  helps  us  to  understand  the  ideals 
and  taste  in  literature,  art,  typography,  binding,  and  book- 
making as  a whole.  To  a large  extent  the  product  of  fashions 
and  fads,  it  yet  yields  some  reflection  of  the  deeper-lying  spirit 
of  its  age. 

(From  the  Library9 s large  collection  of  keepsakes , 
an  exhibit  has  been  arranged  in  the  Treasure  Room.) 


Eugene  Delatre 

By  ARTHUR  W.  HEINTZELMAN 

BEFORE  leaving  for  France  last  November  on  a mission 
for  the  French  Government  to  arrange  for  exchange  ex- 
hibits between  our  two  countries,  I received  a letter  from 
Madame  Zelina  Delatre,  granddaughter  of  Auguste  Delatre, 
great  printer  of  the  Golden  Age  of  Engraving,  and  daughter  of 
Eugene  Delatre,  equally  well  known  as  a printer  of  the  modern 
masters  of  the  past  half-century.  She  wrote  expressing  a wish 
that  the  complete  oeuvre  of  her  father  be  placed  in  the  Print 
Department  of  the  Boston  Public  Library  beside  those  French 
masters,  so  well  represented  in  our  collection,  whose  plates 
were  printed  and  interpreted  by  her  father  and  grandfather. 
These  portfolios  would  also  contain  letters  and  other  personal 
documents  of  great  interest  and  of  historical  importance  to  the 
print  world. 

This  collection  was  well  known  to  me  as  my  apprenticeship 
in  printing  of  several  years  was  under  the  guidance  of  Eugene 
Delatre,  and  many  of  the  plates  I made  during  my  prolonged 
residence  in  France  were  printed  by  him.  During  this  time  a 
rare  friendship  and  an  appreciation  and  knowledge  of  his  work 
developed. 

To  know  the  art  of  this  rare  personality  who  sacrificed  him- 
self for  others,  was  to  perceive  the  history  of  Montmartre  and 
the  artists  who  worked  there  during  the  last  fifty  years.  Eugene 
Delatre  was  not  only  a great  printer  but  an  artist  as  well,  recog- 
nized as  an  etcher  of  note  and  an  innovator  in  the  color  print 
process. 

In  a letter  to  Madame  Delatre  I mentioned  that  I would  be 
in  Paris  in  a few  weeks,  and  that  I would  be  pleased  to  see  the 
collection,  and  make  arrangements  for  its  acceptance  by  the 
Boston  Public  Library.  I remembered  these  prints,  many  of 
them  running  through  a number  of  states,  recalling  old  Mont- 
martre, which  has  now  almost  entirely  disappeared.  The  old 
cafe,  “Le  Lapin  Agile,”  where  artists,  writers,  and  musicians 
congregated  to  sing,  play,  read,  and  show  their  latest  work 


149 


150  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

with  the  evening  ending  in  all  singing  “Le  Temps  de  Cerises,” 
the  Place  du  Tertre  and  the  narrow  streets  that  resounded  with 
the  clatter  of  the  sabots  of  the  children,  whom  Poulbot  immor- 
talized and  the  walled-in  gardens  — all  these  have  long  since 
been  forgotten  because  of  progress. 

One  cannot  think  of  Eugene  Delatre  without  mentioning  his 
famous  father,  known  by  the  younger  artists  as  “Le  Petit  Pere 
Delatre,”  who  was  their  master.  Eugene,  working  beside  his 
father  from  an  early  age,  benefited  by  his  craftsmanship,  crea- 
tive ability,  and  unusual  imagination.  His  visual  memory  was 
extraordinary,  and  his  enthusiasm  for  other  artists’  work  held 
no  limitations.  Auguste  Delatre’s  criticism  was  sought  by 
those  who  were  more  talented,  and  whose  work  is  among  the 
masterpieces  of  today.  His  atelier  was  a haven  for  free-thinking 
artists  believing  in  progress  during  a moment  when  Paris  was 
ridden  with  unrest  and  revolution.  He  was  an  exacting  master 
and  idealist,  but  there  was  the  balance  of  great  generosity  and 
fellowship  as  well. 

Eugene  remembered  how,  when  he  was  six  years  old,  shots 
fired  by  a German  battery  outside  the  city  bombarded  Paris 
every  day  at  five  o’clock.  One  of  these  missiles  crashed  through 
the  roof  of  his  father’s  atelier  and  destroyed  it  by  fire.  He  re- 
counted to  me  on  several  occasions  how  he  and  his  mother 
took  refuge  in  the  vaults  of  the  Pantheon  while  his  father  was 
on  duty  in  the  National  Guard. 

It  seemed  logical  that  Eugene  should  follow  in  the  footsteps 
of  his  father,  and  inevitable  that  he  should  continue  as  a great 
printer  with  another  generation  of  engravers.  From  his  tender 
years  he  worked  in  all  the  copper  plate  media,  and  he  men- 
tioned that  it  was  through  his  attempts  at  wood-engraving 
that  he  acquired  the  feeling  for  black  and  white.  With  the 
plates  of  such  masters  as  James  McNeill  Whistler,  Seymour 
Haden,  Meryon,  Charles  Jacque,  Alphonse  Legros,  and  others 
of  the  period  as  a guide,  and  his  father’s  keen  interpretation  of 
the  work  before  him,  no  better  school  could  be  imagined,  for 
he  served  an  apprenticeship  that  could  not  be  duplicated  today. 

Eugene  Delatre  related  the  story  of  his  youth  to  me  on  sev- 
eral occasions.  I can  well  remember  his  telling  me  of  a letter 
written  to  his  father  by  Whistler,  asking  him  to  come  to  Lon- 


I5I 


Self-Portrait  oi  Eugene  Delatre 


EUGENE  DELATRE 


153 


don  to  make  corrections  on  several  of  his  plates  and  to  pull 
some  impressions  for  him.  The  letter  came  at  a time  when  his 
father  was  in  financial  difficulty.  Always  accompanying  his 
father,  he  left  for  London  where  he  remained  for  five  years, 
1871-1876.  This  letter  will  soon  be  in  the  collection  of  the  Bos- 
ton Public  Library  along  with  other  original  data  which  con- 
cern Auguste  Delatre’s  associations  with  artists  of  the  Golden 
Age  of  Engraving.  He  recalled  meeting  Whistler  and  his 
brother-in-law  Seymour  Haden,  who  at  that  period  led  the  way 
to  a renaissance  in  etching,  and  the  privilege  of  working  beside 
his  father  in  Whistler’s  studio  while  proofs  were  being  pulled. 

Although  journeys  to  London  at  the  request  of  Whistler 
were  quite  frequent,  the  elder  Delatre  was  too  much  of  a Pari- 
sian to  remain  there  for  as  long  as  he  did  on  this  first  occasion. 
In  1876  he  set  up  an  atelier  in  the  rue  de  la  Villette  for  a brief 
period,  and  shortly  afterward  left  that  address  to  establish 
himself  at  No.  22  rue  Tourlague,  which  is  now  the  location  of 
the  Archeological  Society  of  Vieux  Montmartre. 

It  was  at  this  time,  although  still  in  his  early  teens,  that 
Eugene  began  seriously  working  with  the  etching  and  drypoint 
needle.  All  of  his  training,  which  was  in  great  part  gained 
through  practical  experience  and  constant  association  with  his 
father,  was  now  to  bear  fruit.  After  another  brief  period  the 
workshop  was  finally  established  permanently  at  87  rue  Lepic, 
the  atelier  that  I knew  so  well.  It  was  here  that  the  younger 
Delatre  became  famous  as  a printer  after  his  father’s  death  in 
1907. 

One  climbed  the  rue  Lepic,  almost  too  steep  for  human  feet, 
to  No.  87,  where  entrance  Was  gained  through  a huge  w'ooden 
gate  on  iron  hinges  and  with  a rustic  ring  which  opened  the 
latch.  This  led  to  a cobblestoned  courtyard,  where  at  the  fur- 
ther end  one  entered  the  famous  studio  which  shut  out  the  ma- 
terial world,  and  where,  could  the  walls  speak,  the  history  of 
graphic  arts  would  be  the  richer. 

On  entering  one  was  conscious  of  serious  work;  there  was 
criticism  or  comparison  of  a newly  pulled  proof  with  the  bon- 
a-tirer,  with  artist  and  printer  leaning  over  the  impression 
turned  over  on  the  ground  of  the  press.  Charles  Jacque’s  old 
wooden  press  was  still  producing  superb  prints.  It  almost 


i54 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

seemed  as  though  the  autographed  photographs  and  portrait 
drawings  on  the  walls  left  by  Auguste  Delatre  looked  down  on 
the  new  generation  with  encouragement  and  approval.  In  the 
midst  of  this  setting  was  Eugene  Delatre  with  large  felt  hat, 
flowing  black  tie,  corduroy  jacket,  and  voluminous  trousers  in 
old  Montmartre  fashion  working,  advising,  and  giving  gener- 
ously of  his  knowledge  and  experience.  There  was  always  a 
special  piece  of  antique  papier  de  Chine  or  verddtre  for  a plate 
he  considered  worthy  of  special  recognition.  On  leaving  this 
unique  atmosphere  and  being  in  possession  of  the  master 
printer’s  interpretation  of  one’s  latest  effort,  it  seemed  as  though 
inspiration  and  the  desire  to  create  held  no  bounds. 

Many  artists  of  note  passed  through  the  old  gate  at  No.  87, 
where  Eugene  Delatre  took  up  the  work  of  his  father.  Plates 
of  Rops,  Bracquemond,  Desboutin,  Mary  Cassatt,  and  the  work 
of  Buhot,  Pissarro,  Renoir,  Manet,  and  others  were  also  proven. 

Delatre’s  love  of  Montmartre  is  apparent  throughout  his 
oeuvre,  and  over  the  many  years  of  his  residence  there  he  could 
be  seen  with  sketchbook  in  hand  drawing  the  endless  subjects 
which  confronted  him  on  all  sides.  As  a draughtsman  and  paint- 
er he  made  his  debut  at  the  Salon  des  Artistes  Franqais  in 
1881-1882  with  watercolors  and  drawings  of  his  beloved  Mont- 
marte.  One  of  the  exhibits  depicted  the  historic  monument  of 
the  Moulin  de  la  Galette.  This  old  mill  ceased  its  activity  of 
grinding  seeds  for  perfume  in  1872. 

Delatre  was  one  of  the  few  artists  who  really  got  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  “Butte,”  and,  being  so  much  a part  of  it,  he  knew 
how  it  should  be  interpreted  with  needle,  crayon,  or  brush  in 
all  its  moods,  character,  and  poetry.  He  published  a portfolio 
of  its  old  streets : rue  des  Saules,  rue  de  l’Abreuvoir,  rue  de 
Mont  Cenis,  rue  Saint  Vincent,  rue  de  Norvins,  and  others,  not 
forgetting  Place  du  Tertre,  la  Vacherie  de  la  rue  Constance,  le 
Chateau  des  Brouillards,  the  church  Saint  Pierre,  and  the 
Moulin  de  Bray,  which  of  necessity  must  be  included  in  the  set. 

Delatre’s  real  contribution  to  the  print  world  was  his  color 
prints,  in  which  medium  he  was  an  innovator.  His  contribution 
was  in  making  a color  print  from  several  plates,  instead  of  one 
as  had  previously  been  the  practice  in  mezzotint,  aquatint,  and 
stipple-engraving.  In  1898  a comprehensive  exhibition  of  his 


EUGENE  DELATRE 


155 


color  prints  was  held  at  the  Durand-Ruel  Galleries  in  Paris. 

The  method  of  the  plates  and  printing  is  interesting.  After 
having  established  a watercolor  drawing  using  only  the  primary 
colors  (yellow,  red,  blue),  the  artist  makes  a detailed  sketch 
on  the  copper  in  pure  etching,  touched  with  drypoint,  and 
sometimes  makes  use  of  aquatint  and  even  soft-ground.  He 
uses  this  first  plate  for  the  printing  of  the  darkest  tone,  then  he 
pulls  a proof  in  black,  which  he  then  transfers  to  a copper 
plate.  The  second  tone  is  engraved  on  this  new  plate,  and  so  on 
until  the  lightest  tones  are  reached.  He  then  prints  the  plates 
successively,  beginning  with  the  lighter  tones. 

His  printing  proceeded  in  the  following  order : yellow,  red, 
blue,  and  black  (black  when  there  are  four  plates).  The  etcher 
has  previously  made  two  holes  through  the  plates  with  a drill 
in  order  to  be  able  to  register  them  with  the  use  of  pins,  and 
prints  his  successive  proofs,  taking  care  that  the  paper  should 
not  dry,  because  the  shrinking  might  prevent  the  register 
marks  from  matching. 

This  process  was  handed  on  to  Raffaelli,  de  Latenay,  Luigi 
Loir,  and  Fritz  Thaulow.  It  is  the  method  employed  by  Rou- 
ault and  several  other  well-known  contemporary  artists.  This 
period  was  perhaps  the  most  brilliant  in  Eugene  Delatre’s 
atelier.  Steinlen,  Toulouse-Lautrec,  Willette,  Louis  Legrand, 
Leheutre,  and  Lepere  were  constant  visitors  seeking  his  aid  in 
printing  and  executing  their  plates. 

Although  he  never  relinquished  his  belief  that  the  printing 
of  an  etching,  drypoint,  or  engraving  from  one  plate  should  be 
in  black  and  white,  his  interest  for  several  years  was  possessed 
with  a passion  for  the  color  print;  and  in  1893  he  was  one  of 
the  founders  of  the  Society  of  Original  Color  Engraving. 

Delatre’s  studio  became  the  center  of  printmaking,  and  an 
old  friend  of  the  printer’s  related  to  me  that  there  was  much 
bending  over  proofs  and  long  discussions  about  them,  includ- 
ing adverse  criticism  and  praise.  It  was  a meeting  place  where 
true  collaboration  gave  birth  to  ideas  and  innovations,  from 
which  many  artists  of  the  period  profited,  particularly  those 
whose  activities  centered  in  Montmartre. 

Eugene  Delatre  adopted  the  “Butte,”  and  like  the  Mont- 
martre singers  he  sang  the  praises  of  his  little  native  land  with 


156  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

etching  needle  and  crayon  to  record  its  history  which  has  since 
lost  its  artistic  atmosphere  and  original  identity.  At  the  turn 
of  the  century  he  had  only  to  take  a few  steps  up  the  rue  Lepic 
to  dominate  the  entire  panorama  of  Paris.  In  his  prints  one 
finds  a reflection  of  what  Montmartre  was,  and  there  is  almost 
a trace  of  a tear  in  several  of  his  later  prints,  “Les  Derniers 
Moulins”  and  “Montmartre  s’en  va.” 

For  a few  years  before  his  death  Delatre  'made  etchings, 
drawings,  and  watercolors  in  several  of  the  provinces  of  France. 
The  once  active  atelier  bursting  with  creative  talent  now  be- 
came but  a memory.  However,  Eugene  Delatre,  accomplished 
artist  and  illustrious  printer,  could  look  back  with  rich  satisfac- 
tion on  his  great  past.  His  oeuvre  is  considerable  and  contains 
approximately  six  hundred  items,  all  of  which  are  now  in  the 
possession  of  the  Print  Department  of  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

Although  his  name  has  not  the  universal  recognition  of  a 
number  of  the  artists  he  helped  to  fame,  we  who  knew  him  can 
look  back  upon  the  accomplishment  of  this  craftsman,  inno- 
vator, and  etcher  as  an  artist’s  artist,  which  is  an  important 
achievement  in  itself.  All  who  have  benefited  by  Delatre’s  ex- 
pert knowledge  know  that  it  was  at  a sacrifice  to  himself,  and 
that  their  road  was  made  easier  through  his  great  generosity  and 
self-immolation.  They  will  sing  his  praises  personally  and 
through  their  work  as  long  as  the  history  of  prints  is  written. 

There  had  been  dreams  among  artists  and  friends  of  creating 
a Delatre  Museum,  similar  to  the  famous  Musee  Plantin  at 
Antwerp,  which  would  through  its  treasures  recall  a century 
of  the  history  of  etching.  This  dream  however  is  not  to  be 
realized;  but,  happily  for  us,  the  work  of  Eugene  Delatre  has 
not  been  dispersed;  it  is  safely  housed  in  the  Print  Department 
of  the  Boston  Public  Library.  The  memory  and  history  of  Old 
Montmartre  depicted  by  one  of  its  favorite  sons  can  be  found 
among  the  masters  whose  work  bears  the  signature  of  Auguste 
and  Eugene  Delatre. 


Notes  on  Rare  Books  and  Manuscripts 

Letters  by  Longfellow  to  Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps 

N the  manuscript  collections  of  the  Boston  Public  Library  areT 
twelve  letters  written  by  Henry  W.  Longfellow  to  Elizabeth  Stuart  JL 
Phelps  Ward  between  April,  1876,  and  August,  1881.  They  are  in- 
teresting literary  documents,  recording  the  cordial  relationship 
between  the  aging  poet  and  the  successful  young  writer.  The  let- 
ters also  reflect  the  charm  and  kindliness  which  characterized 
Longfellow,  especially  in  his  last  years. 

Almost  entirely  forgotten  today,  Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps  was 
a prolific  novelist  from  1868,  the  publication  date  of  The  Gates  Ajar, 
until  her  death  in  1911,  at  the  age  of  sixty-seven.  Her  background, 
as  the  daughter  of  Austin  Phelps,  an  Andover  theologian,  was  in- 
tellectual and  deeply  spiritual.  Still  in  her  thirties,  she  was  a friend 
of  the  great  New  England  literary  figures  — Longfellow,  Whittier, 
Holmes,  Emerson,  Brooks,  and  others.  A moralist  who  fought  for 
causes  such  as  women’s  rights,  temperance,  and  anti-vivisection, 
she  was  best-known  as  a novelist;  The  Gates  Ajar  reached  a cir- 
culation of  a hundred  thousand  copies  in  America,  and  was  even 
better  received  in  England. 

The  letters  show  Longfellow’s  modesty  in  a period  in  which  he 
was  adored  — and  was  imposed  upon  by  his  admirers.  Through- 
out the  group,  the  harrowing  effects  of  insomnia,  which  troubled 
both  authors,  form  a constant  theme.  On  April  11,  1877,  Long- 
fellow thanked  Miss  Phelps  for  sleeping  powders  she  had  sent  him. 
‘‘Great  is  Hahnemann  and,  you  are  his  prophet!”  he  declared  and 
he  assured  her  that  if  the  remedy  continued  successful,  he  would 
“bless  the  day  and  the  hour  and  the  giver.”  Samuel  C.  F.  Hahne- 
mann (1755-1843),  the  German  physician  and  founder  of  homeo- 
pathy, to  whom  Longfellow  referred,  was  famous  in  both  Europe 
and  America  for  his  experiments  with  various  drugs.  In  a later 
letter,  the  poet  sympathized  with  the  “sleepless  and  suffering” 
Miss  Phelps,  and  asked : 

Why  will  the  busy  brain  go  on  all  night,  swinging  its  arms 
about  like  a windmill,  when  it  has  nothing  to  grind  but  itself  ? 

Della  Casa  has  written  a beautiful  Sonnet  on  Sleep,  but  he 
would  have  been  a greater  benefactor  to  some  of  his  readers,  if 
he  had  discovered  a remedy  for  insomnia. 


157 


158  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

Ten  days  later,  Longfellow  wrote  again  of  the  Della  Casa  sonnet, 
offering  to  send  his  correspondent  a translation  of  it,  remarking, 
however,  that  it  did  not  put  him  to  sleep  but  rather  kept  him 
awake.  In  the  same  letter,  he  brought  a “new  remedy”  to  Miss 
Phelps’s  attention,  that  of  imitating  the  breathing  of  a sleeping 
person.  But  he  had  little  faith  in  that  either.  “All  these  various 
remedies  seem  to  me,”  he  wrote,  “like  recipes  for  French  dishes. 
There  is  always  some  ingredient  in  them  not  to  [be]  found  in  this 
country.  The  result  is  failure.”  At  the  end  of  the  letter,  he  referred 
to  his  poem  dedicated  to  the  children  of  Cambridge,  advising  Miss 
Phelps,  “If  all  other  soporifics  fail,  try  this.” 

Longfellow’s  criticism  of  Miss  Phelps’s  writing  is  an  example 
of  the  encouragement  he  was  happy  to  give.  “Your  poem  is  very 
simple  and  sweet,”  he  wrote  about  “The  Poet  and  the  Poem,”  on 
April  6,  1876.  It  is  not  irrelevant  to  add  that  the  poem  concerns 
Longfellow's  own  Evangeline , describing  a Friends  almshouse,  the 
possible  model  of  the  one  in  which  the  Acadian  girl  found  the  dy- 
ing Gabriel.  Replying  to  Miss  Phelps’s  question  about  such  a 
house  in  Philadelphia,  Longfellow  stated : “The  cottage  I do  not 
remember;  only  an  enclosure,  with  tall  trees  and  brick  walls;  just 
enough  for  the  imagination  to  work  upon,  and  no  more.”  (The 
sentence  was  incorporated  into  another  letter  by  Samuel  Long- 
fellow in  his  Final  Memorials  of  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow, 
Boston,  1887,  p.  245.) 

One  of  Miss  Phelps’s  best-known  novels,  The  Story  of  Avis , was 
highly  commended  by  Longfellow  in  October,  1877:  “I  am  par- 
ticularly struck  by  the  style;  so  fresh  and  original,  and  different 
from  any  other.  One  cannot  prize  such  individuality  too  highly. 
It  is  the  flavor  of  fruit,  or  rather,  is  to  a book  what  flavor  is  to 
fruit,  and  tone  is  to  the  voice.”  A year  and  a half  later,  he  assured 
her  that  he  had  neither  “changed  nor  modified  [his]  opinion.” 
What  Longfellow  most  admired  about  Miss  Phelps  was  her  ability 
to  depict  female  characters ; and  he  apparently  sympathized  with 
her  “modern”  woman  seeking  adjustment  in  a new  and  compli- 
cated life.  On  March  17,  1879,  he  again  wrote  about  Avis : “If  you 
should  never  write  another  book,  you  might  be  content  with  hav- 
ing given  the  most  beautiful  analysis  of  a noble  woman’s  nature, 
that  I have  seen  in  any  work  of  fiction.”  He  also  admired  Friends : 
A Duet,  1881,  for  its  sensitive  portrayal  of  women. 

Other  efforts  of  Miss  Phelps,  too,  received  Longfellow’s  com- 
mendation. “Victurae  Salutamus,”  written  for  the  first  commence- 


NOTES  ON  RARE  BOOKS 


159 


ment  of  Smith  College,  he  found  “original  . . . and  very  sugges- 
tive.” Sealed  Orders , a collection  of  stories  which  appeared  in  1880, 
was  praised : “The  story  that  most  touched  and  interested  me  was 
‘The  Voyage  of  the  America.’  I do  not  know  that  it  is  better  than 
others  in  the  volume,  but  it  appeals  most  to  the  imagination,  and 
one  might  write  a poem  on  the  subject,  if  ‘The  Ancient  Mariner,' 
had  never  been  written.  Fortunately  it  has  been.” 

That  Miss  Phelps,  a woman  struggling  for  recognition  in  a 
literary  world  in  which  she  was  not  wholly  accepted,  appreciated 
Longfellow’s  sympathy  is  evident  from  her  autobiographical 
work,  Chapters  from  a Life,  published  in  1896.  “I  have  . . . never 
met,”  she  wrote,  “any  other  man  who  showed  . . . such  a marvel- 
ous intuition  in  the  comprehension  of  an  unusual  woman  . . . 
‘The  Story  of  Avis’  was  a woman’s  book,  hoping  for  small  hospi- 
tality at  the  hands  of  men.” 

The  letters  also  offer  a few  glimpses  of  Longfellow’s  life  after 
his  return  from  his  last  trip  abroad.  His  friends,  George  W. 
Greene,  the  grandson  and  biographer  of  General  Nathanael 
Greene,  and  James  Fields,  the  publisher,  and  his  wife,  Annie 
Fields,  are  mentioned  several  times.  References  are  made  to  Long- 
fellow’s later  work,  such  as  Ultima  Thule  and  The  Poems  of  Places. 
The  poet’s  daily  life  is  described  and  his  opinions  on  current  af- 
fairs are  related.  On  March  31,  1877,  he  wrote: 

Tennyson’s  “roaring  moon  of  daffodil  and  crocus”  is  ending 
very  quietly  to-day;  and  though  I like  all  kinds  of  weather,  I am 
not  sorry  to  have  the  Spring  come  again. 

This  afternoon  we  have  been  to  hear  Wagner’s  opera  of 
Lohengrin.  It  is  a stupendous  performance;  an  “exulting  and 
abounding  river”  of  sound,  that  bears  you  onward  with  a great 
rush,  and  without  a break  from  beginning  to  end.  It  is  really 
marvellous,  and  has  left  a deep  impression  on  my  mind  of  Wag- 
ner’s power  and  mastery  over  all  instruments.  The  horns,  which 
I like  so  much,  play  a great  part  in  the  opera. 

Dickens  is  mentioned  in  an  anecdote.  Expressing  his  gratitude 
to  Miss  Phelps  for  a story  she  had  sent  him,  Longfellow  noted : 
“It  reminds  me  of  my  once  showing  to  Dickens  his  works  upon 
my  book-shelves,  and  his  exclaiming;  ‘Sh,  I see  you  read  the  good 
authors.’  ” 

Longfellow  cheerfully  accepted  the  admiration  of  the  public, 
although  at  times  it  must  have  proved  burdensome.  He  described 
the  celebration  of  his  seventy-third  birthday  by  the  children  of 


160  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

Cincinnati : “The  celebration  of  my  unfortunate  birthday  by  the 
Schools  of  the  West  has  overwhelmed  me  with  letters.  Fifteen 
thousand  school  girls  have  driven  over  me  with  all  their  horses, 
as  Tullia  did  over  the  body  of  her  father  in  the  streets  of  Rome. 
There  is  no  life  left  in  me.”  His  reaction  to  the  newspaper  story 
of  the  country  girls  who  “escaped”  to  the  city  and  paused  outside 
Craigie  House,  not  daring  to  enter,  is  likewise  entertaining: 


I found  in  the  Transcript  the  letter  of  the  young  Bohemian 
girls.  I wish  they  had  not  stopped  outside  my  gate,  but  had  come 
in.  I should  have  been  greatly  pleased  to  see  two  such  erratic 
heavenly  bodies. 

I am  only  afraid  that  such  proceedings  as  theirs  will  fire  too 
many  restless  young  hearts  in  country  towns.  I suppose  we  all 
have  a drop  of  gipsy  blood  in  us ; and  want  to  break  through  the 
invisible  bars  of  our  surroundings.  No  one  seems  quite  content 
with  a life  limited  to  fourteen  lines,  like  a sonnet.  It  might  be 
otherwise,  if  lives  thus  limited  were  really  sonnets. 


The  poet’s  last  letter  is  dated  August  21,  1881  — seven  months 
before  his  death. 


Mary  L.  Hegarty 


A Stephen  O’Meara  Collection 

A COLLECTION  of  letters,  speeches,  testimonials,  and  other 
items  bearing  on  the  various  activities  of  the  late  Stephen 
O’Meara,  editor  and  publisher  of  the  Boston  Journal  and  Police 
Commissioner  of  the  City  of  Boston,  has  been  presented  to  the 
Boston  Public  Library  by  his  daughters,  Miss  Alice  O’Meara  and 
Miss  Lucy  O’Meara,  of  Northampton,  Massachusetts.  In  addition, 
there  are  thousands  of  newspaper  clippings,  excerpts  from  maga- 
zine articles,  programs  of  meetings,  and  invitations  to  gatherings 
of  local,  state,  and  national  interest,  together  with  some  items  re- 
lating to  Mr.  O’Meara’s  two  extensive  European  tours  in  1903  and 
1906. 

The  correspondence  includes  letters  of  O’Meara  to  his  wife,  and 
letters  from  such  distinguished  men  as  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Ed- 
ward Everett  Hale,  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  John  D.  Long,  Samuel 
Hoar,  Frank  A.  Munsey,  Joseph  Pulitzer,  and  others.  Many  of  them 
contain  comments  on  current  affairs.  The  letters  dealing  with  jour- 
nalism and  newspapers  — particularly  those  about  the  change  in 


NOTES  ON  RARE  BOOKS 


161 


ownership  of  the  Boston  Journal  at  the  time  of  O’Meara’s  resignation 
as  editor  and  publisher,  and  those  about  the  Associated  Press,  the 
American  Newspaper  Publishers’  Association,  and  the  St.  Louis 
Post-Dispatch  — are  informative. 

The  very  comprehensive  group  of  newspaper  clippings  and  cut- 
tings from  magazine  articles  relates  to  O’Meara’s  public  life  from 
1877  until  his  death  on  December  14,  1918.  He  served  as  president 
of  the  Charlestown  High  School  Association,  and  of  the  Boston 
Press  Club,  and  was  affiliated  with  the  New  England  Associated 
Press  and  the  National  Associated  Press;  he  ran  for  Congress  in 
1904,  for  Mayor  of  Boston  in  1906,  and  again  for  Congress  in  1910. 
The  itineraries  of  his  European  trips  are  supplemented  by  letters 
of  advice  from  friends  experienced  in  European  travel. 

At  the  time  of  his  death  Stephen  O’Meara  was  thus  described  by 
a friend : “He  was  an  honest,  gentle,  fearless,  modest  public  servant 
whose  experience  demonstrated  the  value  to  the  community  of  a 
man  whose  heart  and  conscience  combined  to  guide  him  in  the  dis- 
charge of  public  duty.” 


Valentine  Writers’  Manuals 

THE  history  of  valentines  includes  many  interesting  produc- 
tions, and  among  the  best  of  them  are  the  “Valentine  Writers” 
or  collections  of  verses,  scores  of  which  were  published  in  England 
in  the  early  nineteenth  century,  when  the  custom  of  sending  cards 
on  February  14th  first  became  popular.  The  Rare  Book  Depart- 
ment of  the  Boston  Public  Library  has  a number  of  such  chapbooks. 

In  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  a “valentine”  was 
something  substantial  — a present,  often  quite  expensive,  given 
on  St.  Valentine’s  Day.  Pepys  records  spending  five  pounds  for  his 
wife’s  valentine,  and  notes  that  the  Duke  of  York  gave  a certain 
lady  a jewel  worth  £800.  At  first  most  valentine  cards  were  hand- 
made; and,  since  not  everyone  had  the  talent  to  compose  the  nec- 
essary poem,  manuals  of  ready-made  verses  enjoyed  great  popu- 
larity. They  included  three  types : the  serious,  the  comic,  and  the 
professional,  suited  to  some  particular  trade. 

The  earliest  and  one  of  the  most  charming  of  the  group  is  Cupid’s 
Annual  Charter,  published  about  1810  by  W.  Perks.  Its  colored 
frontispiece  shows  a young  man  in  yellow  knee-breeches  pointing 
out  the  way  to  church  to  a shy  young  woman  in  white.  Each  valen- 
tine is  followed  by  an  answer.  Most  of  the  latter  are  kind,  but  some 


162  the  b.  p.  l.  quarterly 

are  tart ; a Cottage  Maid,  for  example,  declines  a rich  marriage  with 
the  remark:  “Equal  marriages  are  best,  Vanity  don’t  fill  my  breast.” 
The  tone  of  the  comic  valentines  is  mild.  An  Old  Maid  is  urged : 
“Assume  a smile,  fling  off  that  chilling  frown,  Discard  that  antique 
twirling  ivory  fan,  Hang  both  your  parrot  and  your  tabby  cat,  And 
change  your  monkey  for  a smart  young  man.” 

The  same  publisher,  a few  years  later,  produced  The  School  of 
Love.  Here  the  emphasis  is  on  verses  suited  to  every  conceivable 
occupation,  from  actor  through  waterman,  most  of  them  punning 
on  words,  or  making  pertinent  comparisons.  Thus  the  poem  “From 
a Publican  or  a Brewer”  includes  the  lines  “As  strong  as  malt  the 
love  I bear,  As  ale  both  clear  and  fine.”  The  Fishmonger  likens  his 
sweetheart’s  red  lips  to  a lobster’s  shell,  while  the  Greengrocer 
writes  “No  cauliflower  half  so  white  As  is  your  skin,  my  sole  de- 
light.” One  of  the  best  verses  is  from  the  Stationer,  who  after  com- 
paring his  love’s  eyes  to  ink,  and  her  complexion  to  white  paper, 
cries : “Like  sealing-wax  before  the  fire,  I melt  away  with  fond 
desire!”  But  the  answer  that  follows  is  scornful:  “Sealing-wax 
soon  melts  away  . . Paper  will  tear  and  ink  will  fade,  No  emblem 
lasting  have  you  made.”  The  pamphlet  has  a colored  frontispiece 
in  the  style  of  Thomas  Rowlandson,  showing  the  “School  of  Love.” 

A nineteenth-century  owner  of  the  Library’s  copy  of  The  Cabinet  of 
Love , published  by  T.  Tegg  in  1812,  marked  several  of  the  poems 
and  rewrote  others.  In  one  case  the  word  “damn’d”  did  not  suit 
him,  and  he  genteelly  cut  out  the  offending  line.  Most  of  the  selec- 
tions are  sentimental  and  flowery,  addressed  “To  a Lady”  or  “To  a 
Gentleman,”  but  there  are  also  several  to  and  from  various  tradesmen. 

Sarah  Wilkinson,  author  of  such  popular  Gothic  thrillers  as  The 
Spectre  and  Monkcliffe  Abbey  was  responsible  fGr  Love  and  Hymen, 
published  about  1820.  Here  the  verses  are  serious  and  romantic, 
with  many  conventional  references  to  nymphs  and  bowers.  The 
colored  frontispiece,  however,  is  in  quite  a different  style,  with 
verses  addressed  to  Cinderella,  the  queen  of  the  London  dust-hill. 
The  picture  shows  “a  little  dirty  Cupid”  sitting  on  an  ash-heap, 
with  Cinderella  holding  a sieve.  “Sifters”  in  her  trade  searched  the 
ashes  for  valuables,  and  were  paid  a shilling  a day  plus  half  the 
worth  of  what  they  found. 

The  frontispiece  of  The  Tradesman' s New  Valentine  Writer,  pub- 
lished in  the  1830’s  by  Dean  and  Munday,  illustrates  eleven  of  the 
forty-eight  trades  it  covers,  which  include  those  of  an  anchor-smith, 
plaisterer,  and  undertaker.  Several  of  the  verses  have  evidently  been 
taken  from  earlier  collections ; and  after  each  valentine  are  two 
answers,  favorable  and  unfavorable.  Thus  the  Butler’s  offer  of 


NOTES  ON  RARE  BOOKS 


163 

“good  cheer”  can  be  accepted  with  the  words : “Since  so  kind  your 
invitation,  And  so  good  your  situation,  Willingly  I’ll  taste  your 
wine,  And  gladly  be  your  Valentine”;  or  he  can  be  rebuked : “Why 
should  you  my  friend  make  free  With  another’s  property?  . . . Till 
you  buy  your  ale  and  wine,  I’ll  not  be  your  Valentine.” 

As  time  went  on,  valentines  tended  to  be  more  sharply  divided 
into  serious  and  comic,  the  former  taking  on  an  early  Victorian  tone 
of  solemn  sentiment.  In  Park's  Guide  to  Hymen  most  of  the  verses 
are  of  the  first  type.  Many  of  them  have  been  lifted  from  other 
sources:  “From  a Shepherd,”  for  example,  is  an  adaptation  of  Mar- 
lowe’s “The  Passionate  Shepherd  to  His  Love.”  The  volume  has 
no  date,  but  the  costumes  in  the  elaborate  folding  frontispiece  seem 
to  place  it  at  about  1840.  It  shows  a gentleman  and  lady  in  a park, 
surrounded  by  cupids.  Richardson' s New  London  Fashionable  Gentle- 
man's Valentine  Writer  dates  from  the  same  time,  or  perhaps  a few 
years  earlier,  for  the  lady  on  the  fringed  sofa  in  its  frontispiece 
wears  the  puffed  sleeves  and  ringlets  of  that  period. 

Two  other  collections,  The  Ladies  and  Gentlemen' s Valentine 
Writer  and  The  Quizzical  Valentine  Writer,  were  printed  in  the  1840’s 
and  1850’s.  Each  consists  of  only  eight  or  ten  pages,  published  as 
part  of  a chapbook  series.  Neither  has  a frontispiece,  but  they  are 
illustrated  with  crude  comic  woodcuts ; both  show  how  the  comic 
valentine,  originally  a mild  joke,  had  become  increasingly  coarse. 
In  The  Quizzical  Valentine  Writer,  the  verses  “To  an  Old  Maid”  tell 
her  that  she  is  despised  by  men,  and  only  fit  “to  sit  and  chat  To 
some  vile  Monkey  or  Tom  Cat.”  When  she  is  dead,  it  prophesies, 
no  friends  will  come  to  her  funeral,  but  her  corpse  will  be  “by 
monkeys  borne,  While  Cats  in  hideous  concert  join.”  An  interest- 
ing topical  piece  is  the  one  addressed  “To  a Lady  Fond  of  Reading 
Novels”  — apparently  both  novels  of  sentiment  and  tales  of  hor- 
ror, for  the  second  verse  runs : “Monks,  spectres,  and  romantic 
scenes  Appear  to  be  your  glory ; But  study  more  domestic  means, 
And  not  ‘A  Simple  Story.’  ” A Simple  Story  was  the  most  successful 
novel  of  Elizabeth  Inchbald,  actress  and  friend  of  William  Godwin. 
It  contrasts  the  results  of  good  and  bad  education,  with  many  tear- 
ful scenes. 

The  custom  of  sending  valentine  cards  had  declined  by  the  end 
of  the  century.  Christmas  cards,  invented  at  about  that  time,  almost 
completely  displaced  them.  Though  the  custom  later  returned,  it 
has  never  since  been  observed  as  widely  as  during  the  early  eighteen- 
hundreds. 


Alison  Bishop 


Trustees  of  the  Library 

Lee  M.  Friedman,  President 
Robert  H.  Lord,  Vice-President 
Frank  W.  Buxton  Frank  J.  Donahue 

Patrick  F.  McDonald 

Director,  and  Librarian 

Milton  Edward  Lord 


Contributors  to  this  Issue 

Frank  Weitenkampf,  formerly  Curator  of  Prints  at  the  New  York 
Public  Library,  is  author  of  American  Graphic  Art,  The  Illustrated 
Book,  and  other  volumes. 

Jordan  D.  Fiore  (Ph.D.,  Boston  University)  is  Assistant  to  the 
Director  of  the  Libraries  of  Boston  University. 

Arthur  W.  Heintzelman,  etcher  and  painter,  is  Keeper  of  Prints 
at  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

Alison  Bishop  and  Mary  L.  Hegarty  are  members  of  the  staff  of 
the  Rare  Book  Department  of  the  Library. 

Zoltan  Haraszti  is  Keeper  of  Rare  Books  and  Editor  of  Publica- 
tions at  the  Boston  Public  Library.  He  is  the  author  of  John 
Adams  and  the  Prophets  of  Progress,  recently  published  by  the  Har- 
vard University  Press. 


6,23,52.  700 


THE 


Boston  Public  Library 
QUARTERLY 


Volume  4,  Number  4 


Contents 


Page 

“Not  Men,  But  Books"  167 

By  Lewis  P.  Simpson 

The  Impostures  of  the  Devil  185 

By  Zoltan  Harassti 

Prophecies  of  the  Popes  200 

By  Margaret  Munsterberg 

Contemporary  French  Prints  210 

By  Arthur  W . Heintzelman 

Notes  on  Rare  Books  and  Manuscripts 

Richardson  Discusses  his  Clarissa  and  Grandison  217 

By  Alison  Bishop 

The  Sources  of  Hawthorne’s  “The  Ambitious  Guest’’  221 

By  B.  Bernard  Cohen 

A Margaret  Fuller  Satire  on  Longfellow  224 

By  James  B.  Reece 

Illustrations 


** 

* 


EDITOR:  ZOLTAN  HARASZTI 

The  Boston  Public  Library  Quarterly  is  published,  for  January,  April,  July, 
and  October  by  the  Trustees  of  the  Public  Library  of  the  City  of  Boston 
in  Copley  Square,  Boston  17.  Entered  as  second-class  matter  at  Boston, 
Massachusetts.  Printed  at  the  Boston  Public  Library  in  September  1952. 

Single  Copies,  50  cents 
Annual  Subscription,  $2.00 


THE 

Boston  Public  Library 
QUARTERLY 


October  1952 

“Not  Men,  But  Books55 

By  LEWIS  P.  SIMPSON 

ON  April  16,  1815,  two  young  Bostonians,  George  Tick- 
nor  and  Edward  Everett,  embarked  on  a packet  bound 
out  of  Boston  for  Liverpool.  In  England  they  spent  a 
few  pleasant  weeks  visiting,  chiefly  in  London.  On  June  30 
they  left  for  the  Continent,  proceeded  shortly  afterward  to 
Germany,  and  on  August  4 took  up  residence  as  students  at 
the  University  of  Gottingen.  Ticknor  concluded  his  studies  in 
March  1817,  Everett  in  September  of  the  same  year.  For  two 
years  thereafter  they  traveled  about  Europe,  studying,  observ- 
ing, and  collecting  books.  In  June  1819  Ticknor  returned  to 
Boston,  and  two  months  later  began  his  teaching  career  at 
Harvard  as  the  first  Smith  Professor  of  the  French  and  Span- 
ish Languages  and  Literatures.  In  September  Everett  came 
back,  to  assume  the  Professorship  of  Greek  at  Harvard.1 

The  four  years  Ticknor  and  Everett  devoted  to  study  and 
travel  in  Europe  bear  significant  relations  to  the  history  of  let- 
ters and  learning  in  this  country.  Some  of  these  can  be  readily 
summarized.  In  the  widest  sense,  their  European  sojourn 
strengthened  and  broadened  the  cosmopolitan  tradition  in 
American  letters,  as  opposed  to  both  the  British  and  the  national- 
istic traditions.  More  specifically,  it  afforded  the  most  intimate 
and  productive  contact  with  the  methods  of  German  education 
and  scholarship  yet  made  by  any  Americans;  it  prepared  the 


167 


i68 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 


way  for  a long  succession  of  American  youths  to  make  the 
same  acquaintance;  through  Ticknor  it  influenced  the  intro- 
duction of  modern  languages  and  literatures  at  Harvard  and 
elsewhere;  and  through  Everett  it  promoted  the  advanced 
study  of  Greek  literature  in  America. 

Looking  back  in  its  centennial  upon  the  Boston  Public  Li- 
brary’s establishment,  however,  one  may  well  emphasize  still 
another  result  of  Ticknor’s  and  Everett’s  journey.  It  inspired 
the  first  thinking  in  Boston  about  founding  a library  compar- 
able to  the  great  public  libraries  they  had  visited  in  Europe. 
The  time  was  far  from  ripe  for  such  a venture  in  Boston;  but 
the  idea  persisted,  for  it  was  based  on  a conviction  held  strong- 
ly by  both  Ticknor  and  Everett  that  books  are  the  fundamental 
resource  of  culture.  This  was  the  conception  which  had  largely 
inspired  and  shaped  their  first  journey  abroad;  and  some  forty 
years  later,  in  1856-57,  the  same  idea  sent  Ticknor  to  Europe 
on  his  fruitful  book-buying  mission  for  the  newly-founded  Bos- 
ton Public  Library.2 

It  would  seem  that  the  inspiration  of  books  could  hardly  be 
called  unusual.  Yet  in  its  original  context  it  possessed  enough 
novelty  to  lead  Ticknor  and  Everett  to  embrace  an  educational 
philosophy  somewhat  contrary  to  the  one  embodied  in  their 
heritage.  Because  it  illuminates  the  results  of  their  first  jour- 
ney to  Europe,  including  the  genesis  of  the  idea  of  the  Boston 
Public  Library,  their  attitude  toward  books  and  travel  is  worth 
attention.  It  is  the  purpose,  therefore,  of  the  present  article  to 
present  their  background  as  European  travelers,  and  to  reveal 
the  significance  of  their  intention  in  going  abroad. 

About  the  latter  there  is  a diversity  of  opinion.  One  writer 
defines  their  motive  simply  as  a “romantic  impulse”;  another 
states  that  Ticknor  went  overseas  “to  broaden  his  general  edu- 
cation and  to  collect  a private  library” ; a third  remarks  that 
Ticknor  went  to  the  Old  World  “to  bring  home  the  spoils  of 
culture,  a mission  he  undertook  at  a propitious  time.”  Van 
Wyck  Brooks,  following  Henry  Adams,  points  primarily  to 
the  influence  of  Madame  de  Stael’s  De  I’Allemagne  and  to  Tick- 
nOr’s  and  Everett’s  belief  in  the  scholar’s  mission.3  These  inter- 
pretations imply  divergent  assumptions  about  the  cultural  mo- 
tives of  the  period : the  burgeoning  romanticism  of  the  century, 


“NOT  MEN,  BUT  BOOKS” 


69 


the  traditional  British  attitudes  toward  the  educational  value 
of  travel,  a spiritual  and  intellectual  quest  after  cultural  riches, 
and  finally  the  Anglo-Saxon  awakening  to  German  culture. 
Such  differences  are  of  course  not  necessarily  irreconcilable. 
They  can  be  fitted  into  a pattern.  But,  considered  singly  or  col- 
lectively, they  do  not  reveal  the  basic  intention  of  Ticknor’s 
and  Everett’s  travels.  This  intention  comes  clearly  to  light 
against  the  background  of  eighteenth-century  British  travel 
conventions  and  the  relation  of  these  conventions  to  the  liter- 
ary culture  of  Boston. 

During  the  period  from  about  1550  to  1650,  the  English  up- 
per classes  turned  travel  abroad  for  their  sons  into  a part  of 
the  educational  system.  The  underlying  theory  was  a noble 
one,  uniting  practical  and  moral  ends.  It  held  a Continental 
tour,  often  called  the  “Grand  Tour,”  to  be  the  indispensable 
climax  to  the  young  gentleman’s  formal  schooling.  It  was  the 
means  not  only  of  educating  him  for  service  to  the  state,  but 
of  bringing  forth  his  latent  social  and  intellectual  resources.  It 
proposed  to  transform  the  school-boy  into  a cosmopolitan 
gentleman.  When  the  differences  between  the  theory  and  prac- 
tice became  evident,  the  gentleman  traveler  fell  prey  to  the 
satirists,  nowhere  more  than  in  the  Dunciad.  But  even  Pope’s 
pen  could  not  vanquish  respect  for  a system  so  thoroughly  em- 
bedded in  a tradition  stemming  from  the  Renaissance;  and, 
though  travel  for  education  tended  to  degenerate  into  a social 
ritual,  and  the  attitude  toward  it  took  on  a dilettantish  cast,  its 
idealism  endured  throughout  the  eighteenth  century.4  This 
Renaissance  emphasis,  in  fact,  found  its  strongest  expression 
in  Lord  Chesterfield,  to  whom  the  central  use  of  travel  was  the 
fusion  of  the  knowledge  of  books  (gained  at  home)  with  the 
knowledge  of  men,  their  affairs,  and  customs  (gained  by  travel). 
Consequently,  he  looked  upon  his  son’s  tour  abroad  as  the 
most  crucial  stage  in  his  education,  for  it  must  serve  “to  join  . . . 
books  and  the  world.”5 

Chesterfield’s  opinion,  however,  is  not  typical  of  his  age.  In 
the  Spectator , No.  364,  occurs  a more  representative  comment 
on  the  “general  notion  of  travelling,  as  it  is  now  made  a part 
of  education.”  Here  travel  is  presented  simply  to  make  the 
young  gentleman  “acquainted  with  men  and  things.”  He  is  to 


170  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

learn  something  about  the  customs  and  policies  of  foreign 
countries;  to  improve  his  manners  “by  a more,  free,  general, 
and  mixed  conversation”;  to  heighten  his  taste  for  the  classi- 
cal writers  by  visiting  the  scenes  of  their  lives;  and,  gazing 
upon  the  relics  of  antiquity,  to  moralize  upon  “the  ruinous  al- 
terations” of  “time  and  barbarity”  and  the  virtues  of  the  great 
Romans.6  Yet  although  the  weakening  of  travel  idealism  is 
well  represented  in  the  Spectator,  Chesterfield's  attitude  was 
not  completely  anachronistic.  It  was  the  final  celebration  of  a 
compelling  social  aspiration.  Seldom  fully  realized  in  practice, 
it  continued  to  exert  its  appeal  even  as  the  circumstances  which 
had  created  it  ceased  to  exist. 

w HAT  was  the  connection  between  Ticknor’s  and  Ev- 
erett’s first  European  journey  and  the  long-lived  British  theory 
of  travel  for  education?  The  question  leads  us  to  ask  how  travel 
and  education  were  related  in  the  Anglicized,  homogenous, 
patrician  society  which  reared  the  two  Bostonians. 

Fearing  change  in  a changing  world,  the  Boston  intellectuals 
sought  in  the  era  before  the  second  war  with  England  to 
shape  letters  and  learning  in  the  secure  image  of  the  British 
Augustan  Age.  As  a result,  their  community  tended  to  be  a 
more  self-conscious  provincial  microcosm  of  the  British  world 
than  it  had  been  in  the  colonial  past  or  would  be  in  the  national 
future.  On  the  other  hand,  Boston’s  literary  culture  in  the  late 
1790’s  and  early  1800’s  shows  an  inner  vigor;  and  one  should 
not  overemphasize  its  attachment  to  a decadent  neo-classicism. 
In  this  period  the  Bostonians  renewed  Harvard,  founded  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society  and  other  learned  organiza- 
tions, and  the  Boston  Athenaeum.  They  also  instituted  the  An- 
thology Society  (1805-1811)  and  published  the  Monthly  An- 
thology and  Boston  Review  (1803-1811),  the  most  substantial 
periodical  issued  in  the  United  States  in  its  day;  and  helped  to 
write  and  edit  the  Literary  Miscellany  (1804-1806)  and  the  Gen- 
eral Repository  and  Review  (1812-1813),  two  periodicals  pub- 
lished at  Cambridge.  They  concerned  themselves  with  raising 
the  standards  of  book  publication  and  with  bringing  out  no- 
table foreign  works  under  American  imprints.  The  Reverend 


“NOT  MEN,  BUT  BOOKS” 


171 

Joseph  Stevens  Buckminster,  for  instance,  aided  by  William 
Wells,  edited  and  published  at  Cambridge  in  1808  an  edition  of 
Griesbach’s  Greek  Testament , before  the  work  had  come  out  in 
England. 

Closely  related  to  these  activities  were  their  travels  to  Eng- 
land and  the  Continent.  These  were  numerous;  among  Tick- 
nor’s  and  Everett’s  slightly  older  contemporaries  travel  abroad 
was  virtually  a commonplace.  Perhaps  the  most  influential 
among  these  travelers  was  their  friend  and  counsellor  Buck- 
minster, whose  early  death  in  1812  left  vacant  the  pulpit,  sub- 
sequently occupied  by  Everett,  at  the  Brattle  Street  Church. 
Buckminster’s  companion  on  his  tour  was  the  Reverend  Sam- 
uel Cooper  Thacher,  pastor  of  the  New  South  Church.  Others 
included  Arthur  Maynard  Walter,  Dr.  James  Collins  Warren, 
Dr.  James  Jackson,  Edmund  Trowbridge  Dana,  the  Reverend 
Charles  Lowell,  and  Winthrop  Sargent,  all  with  the  exception 
of  Lowell  members  of  the  Anthology  circle.  Still  more  exten- 
sively traveled  were  Washington  Allston  and  William  Tudor. 
Allston  came  back  to  Boston  in  1809  to  spend  two  years  there 
painting  and  composing  poems.  He  had  been  in  Europe  for  al- 
most ten  years  and  would  return  for  seven  more.  No  other 
traveler  from  the  Boston  world  had  such  an  intimate  knowl- 
edge of  art  and  letters  abroad  as  this  transplanted  Southerner. 
Tudor,  son  of  Colonel  William  Tudor  who  had  entre  to  the  court 
of  King  George  and  many  aristocratic  houses,  was  a veteran 
European  sojourner  by  the  time  the  Anthology  Society  was 
organized.  One  might  also  mention  John  Pickering  of  Salem, 
Harvard  graduate  and  corresponding  member  of  the  Antholo- 
gy Society. 

None  of  these  men  thought  of  travel  as  the  ordained  climax 
to  his  graduation  from  Harvard.  Travel  for  education  in  the 
sense  of  the  Grand  Tour  had  never  been  a custom  in  America, 
much  less  a part  of  the  educational  system.  In  colonial  days 
missions  of  business,  health,  or  professional  training  sent 
American  youths  abroad,  and  after  the  Revolution  travel  con- 
tinued to  remain  of  an  expedient  character.  Yet  the  Bostonians, 
bred  to  respect  letters  and  learning,  seriously  endeavored  to 
exploit  the  educational  possibilities  of  travel.  They  went  to 
Europe  to  “be  made  acquainted  with  men  and  things”  as  well 


172  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

as  to  do  business,  seek  health,  or  learn  a profession;  and  some 
of  them  went  more  for  literary  and  intellectual  reasons  than 
any  other.  To  make  the  most  of  their  travels  they  followed  the 
theory  of  travel  which  they  had  inherited  from  the  British 
eighteenth  century.  It  largely  determined  the  kind  of  educa- 
tion they  got  in  Europe.  A glance  into  their  letters  and  jour- 
nals will  sufficiently  prove  this. 

First,  they  sought  an  education  in  men,  chiefly  men  of  let- 
ters whom  they  revered  and  imitated  before  they  met  them. 
When  his  friend  Walter  left  for  England  in  1802,  William 
Smith  Shaw  remarked:  “He  has  letters  which  will  introduce 
him  to  gentlemen  of  respectability,  and  thus  render  his  journey 
pleasant  and  improving.”7  So  with  his  fellows.  In  Liverpool, 
London,  Edinburgh,  Paris,  Rome,  and  the  cities  of  the  Low 
Countries,  the  Boston  youths  assiduously  searched  out  literary 
celebrities.  Walter  himself  found  Liverpool  “a  place  for  the 
slave  trade  . . . dirty,  smoky  and  disagreeable,”  but  the  city’s  vile- 
ness was  alleviated  by  that  great  literary  attraction,  William 
Roscoe,  who  founded  the  Liverpool  Athenaeum  and  wrote  the 
Life  of  Lorenzo  de  Medici.  Lawyer,  business  man,  patron  of  the 
arts  and  learning,  and  scholar,  Roscoe  was  the  kind  of  gentle- 
man Walter  himself  aspired  to  be.  “Fie  is  a plain,  grave  looking 
man,”  Walter  informed  Shaw,  “silent  in  company,  and  rich.”8 
London  naturally  was  a far  more  abundant  hunting  ground 
than  Liverpool  or  even  the  European  cities.  Here  the  young 
Bostonians  made  numerous  acquaintances  with  well-known 
scholars,  editors,  critics,  and  ministers.  In  his  London  journal 
Buckminster  notes : 

Tuesday , June  26th.  [1806]  Dined  with  Dr.  Rees,  editor  of  the  En- 
cyclopedia. Introduced  to  Dr.  Aiken  and  his  son  Charles.  To  Mr. 
Jones,  the  author  of  a Greek  grammar.  At  the  dinner  there  was  a 
truly  pleasant  and  instructive  conversation.  It  turned  upon  the  evi- 
dences of  a future  state  from  the  light  of  nature.  Dr.  Rees  is  a man 
of  amiable  manners,  various  learning,  some  anecdote,  and  talents  more 
than  common. 

Thursday,  June  28th . Breakfasted  with  Mr.  Jones.  We  had  a truly 
learned  and  delightful  conversation.  Mr.  Jones  had  studied  with  Gilbert 
Wakefield  . . . 

Tuesday.  Dined  at  Dr.  Rees’s,  with  Belsham,  Mr.  Tooke,  Mr.  Wil- 


George  Ticknor  at  Thirty-Seven 
( After  Sloane’s  Copy  of  the  Portrait  by  Sully) 


“NOT  MEN,  BUT  BOOKS”  175 

liam  Taylor  of  Norwich.  Conversation  delightful.  The  tone  is  certainly 
higher  than  with  us.9 

And  so  for  a month  the  young  American  minister  educated 
himself  according  to  “the  voice  and  conference  of  men.”10 

The  illustrations  can  be  multiplied.  Charles  Lowell,  father 
of  James  Russell  Lowell,  studied  informally  in  Edinburgh  un- 
der the  philosophers  Dugald  Stewart  and  Thomas  Brown,  and 
made  other  distinguished  acquaintances  in  the  Scottish  capital. 
From  there  he  went  to  London  and  Paris.  Earlier  in  the 
French  capital,  John  Collins  Warren  was  moving  in  the  circle 
of  Napoleon’s  savants , and  John  Pickering  at  one  of  Madame 
de  Stael’s  soirees  met  Benjamin  Constant.  Leaving  Paris,  Pick- 
ering journey  to  Brussels,  Ghent,  Antwerp,  Rotterdam,  The 
Hague,  Leyden,  Utrecht,  Amsterdam,  and  Haarlem,  seeking 
out  well-known  persons  in  each  city.  On  April  28,  1801,  to  cite 
one  instance,  he  called  upon  John  Luzac,  noted  professor  of 
Greek  at  the  University  of  Leyden,  who  escorted  him  to  the 
bookshops  and  the  University.  In  the  evening  he  attended  a 
party  at  Luzac’s.  He  notes : “Cards  played,  supper,  songs  after- 
wards. Great  gayety.  Many  of  the  company  spoke  English  and 
French.”11 

If  the  travel  records  of  the  New  Englanders  show  us  how 
they  educated  themselves  in  men,  they  also  suggest  their  re- 
sponse to  the  characters  and  sights  of  foreign  cities  and  na- 
tions. This  aspect  of  their  education  abroad  illuminates  the 
Boston  sensibility  in  the  period.  It  helps  us  to  understand 
Ticknor’s  and  Everett’s  inheritance  as  travelers,  with  its 
strong  predisposition  to  British  culture,  its  antipathy  to  Euro- 
pean squalor,  and  its  superficial  grasp  of  the  Catholic  impact 
upon  Western  civilization.  Only  the  barest  illustrations  can  be 
given  here.  John  Collins  Warren  remarks  upon  his  arrival  in 
England  in  1799 : 

I was  impressed  with  a kind  of  pleasing  solemnity,  when  I 
touched  the  land  of  our  forefathers,  while  I recollected  how  many 
important  events  had  been  transacted  there ; how  many  heroes, 
statesmen,  and  philosophers  had  there  displayed  their  greatness ; 
and  how  important  a part  in  the  theatre  of  the  world  was  at  that 
moment  filled  by  this  little  island  . . ,12 


176  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

William  Tudor  records  his  entrance  into  the  Port  of  Naples 
in  1802: 

The  first  day  after  our  arrival  we  were  besieged  with  beggars 
of  every  sort.  They  come  off  in  boats  and  surround  the  vessel.  One 
moment  a capuchin  would  extend  his  cowl,  and  in  a submissive  at- 
titude ask  our  charity ; hardly  rid  of  him,  before  a band  of  music 
would  be  under  the  stern,  till  something  was  obtained ; the  serenade 
finished,  a woman  with  three  or  four  miserable  children  would  be 
screaming  for  something.  These  scenes  are  so  new  to  an  American, 
that  we  always  gave  them ; and  in  consequence  were  so  surrounded 
with  supplicants,  that  we  were  obliged  at  last  to  refuse  our  charity 
altogether.13 

Joseph  Stevens  Buckminster  describes  the  Cathedral  of  Stras- 
bourg in  the  most  enthusiastic  terms.14  Such  descriptions  and 
observations  imply  a great  deal  about  the  literary  and  social 
education  of  the  Bostonians. 

A third  feature  of  this  education,  one  closely  associated  with 
the  Grand  Tour  tradition,  was  the  classical  pilgrimage.  But 
the  Italian  tour  was  not  as  easily  made  as  the  English  and 
French  tours,  and  only  a few  New  Englanders  before  Ticknor 
and  Everett  seem  to  have  found  it  possible.  One  was  William 
Tudor,  who  called  himself  “a  classick  pilgrim.”  Reminiscent  of 
Addison's  Remarks  on  Several  Parts  of  Italy,  his  observations  on 
various  ancient  ruins  indicate  the  intimate  classical  awareness 
of  the  mind  schooled  from  childhood  in  Roman  literature. 
“Every  foot  of  the  place  is  classick  ground,”  Tudor  comments 
upon  the  region  around  the  Mare  Monte  and  the  Elysian 
Fields,  urging  the  visitor  “to  read  the  sixth  book  of  the  Aeneid 
before  he  makes  this  excursion.”  His  remarks  also  suggest  the 
convention  admonishing  the  traveler  to  moralize  about  “the 
ruinous  alterations  of  time  and  barbarity”  as  he  views  the  relics 
of  ancient  civilization.  “The  little  ruin  called  the  Tempio  di 
Venere  is  the  most  beautiful  I have  ever  seen,”  Tudor  writes: 

These  and  some  other  shapeless  ruins  are  all  that  remain  of  an- 
cient Baiae  . . . What  a reverse!  Even  in  the  most  luxurious  days 
of  ancient  Rome,  this  place  became  a proverb  from  the  sensuality 
and  debauchery  of  its  inhabitants,  the  beauty  of  the  climate,  and 
those  fascinating  shores,  once  the  theme  of  the  poets  and  the  resort  of 
the  dissipated.13 


“NOT  MEN,  BUT  BOOKS”  177 

Mr.  Spectator,  needless  to  say,  would  have  approved  the  sen- 
timent. 

Thus  one  may  see  how  the  British  travel  idealism,  as  a part 
of  their  cultural  heritage,  shaped  the  aims  of  the  Boston  travel- 
ers. Without  the  limitations  placed  on  travel  by  the  Napoleonic 
wars,  its  educational  uses  would  undoubtedly  have  been  more 
fully  exploited.  Even  so,  the  New  England  travelers,  protected 
in  part  perhaps  by  the  immunity  of  innocence,  moved  about 
with  considerable  freedom.  They  had  the  opportunity  if  not 
“to  join  books  and  the  world”  in  Chesterfield’s  sense,  at  least 
to  see  “men  and  things.” 

Yet  no  matter  how  seriously  the  Bostonians  responded  to 
the  travel  idealism,  they  could  not  make  it  truly  meaningful  to 
their  situation.  For  it  hardly  accorded  either  with  their  needs 
or  their  ambition.  Theirs  was  a becoming,  not  an  established 
world.  Harvard  was  small,  its  library  severely  limited,  and  its 
curriculum  still  rigidly  circumscribed;  the  Boston  Athenaeum 
was  no  more  than  a reading  room  and  a repository  for  curi- 
ous coins  and  medals;  the  Monthly  Anthology  was  supported  by 
less  than  five  hundred  subscribers.  Consider  in  contrast  an  am- 
bition like  Arthur  Maynard  Walter’s,  who,  before  leaving  for 
Europe  in  1802,  wrote  in  his  journal: 

Literature  is  my  object.  I shall  buy  a good  library  in  London. 
I shall  expend  $1,500  in  law  books  and  a private,  choice  collection. 
I mean  to  buy  the  corner-stones  of  learning.  These  must  support 
the  building;  and  others,  gradually  attained,  must  contribute  to 
its  strength  and  beauty.  The  gigantic  names  of  Cudworth,  Locke, 
Milton,  Selden,  and  others,  will  be  first  obtained,  and,  if  my  money 
be  sufficient,  my  library  will  not  be  small.  There  is  a pathway  open 
in  this  country  to  a goodly  land.  I mean  to  offer  my  passport  at 
the  turnpike-gate.  I mean  steadily  to  study  when  I return  from 
Europe  ....  All  knowledge  must  be  acquired  from  books,  conver- 
sation, or  reflections  upon  human  nature.  Genius  may  quicken 
progress,  give  an  energy  to  our  researches ; it  may  illuminate  what 
is  obscure.  But  to  know  what  have  been  the  collected  treasures  of  the 
old  countries,  to  investigate  our  nature  by  their  productions,  to  measure 
the  mind  by  the  stores  of  intellect  which  former  ages  have  furnished,  to 
knozv  how  to  systematize  our  researches,  how  to  direct  our  inquiries,  can 
only  be  learned  from  books  by  continued  perseverance  in  our  studies, 
and  by  indefatigable  diligence  in  exploring  what  has  been  discovered .l6 
Obviously,  this  went  far  beyond  the  British  idea  of  travel  for 


178  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

education.  Walter’s  organizing  motive  was  scholarship;  he  in- 
tended “to  measure  the  mind,”  not  by  men,  but  “by  the  stores 
of  intellect  which  former  ages  have  furnished.”  Among  the 
sources  of  knowledge,  therefore,  books  assumed  priority;  they 
afforded  the  pathway  to  the  “goodly  land”  the  scholar  would 
create  in  the  New  World  when  he  possessed  himself,  as  he 
was  morally  bound  to  do,  of  his  inheritance  from  the  Old  World. 

Walter’s  point  of  view  was  shared  by  his  friends.  Buckmin- 
ster garnered  an  elegant  private  library  while  he  was  in  Eu- 
rope, containing  more  than  twenty-six  hundred  volumes,  and 
probably  exceeded  in  or  around  Boston  only  by  John  Quincy 
Adams’s  library.  The  young  minister’s  library  was,  Ticknor 
remembered,  “really  rich  and  select.”17  At  the  same  time  Buck- 
minster, serving  as  a voluntary  agent,  was  purchasing  a “pre- 
cious deposit  of  books”  for  the  Athenaeum.18  As  this  interest 
in  books  grew,  it  became  increasingly  cosmopolitan.  Most  sig- 
nificantly, it  extended  to  German  letters  and  learning.  One 
can  almost  certainly  ascribe  Ticknor’s  curiosity  about  things 
German  to  his  Anthology  Society  days,  when  he  must  have 
read  translations  in  the  Anthology  of  two  essays  by  Charles  de 
Viller,  one  a description  of  Gottingen,  the  other  a survey  of 
German  literature;  and  when  he  must  have  interested  himself 
in  Buckminster’s  studies  in  German  biblical  criticism  and  in 
the  various  books  by  Germans  in  the  minister’s  library.19 

But  despite  their  best  efforts,  the  Boston  youths  continued 
to  feel  the  poverty  of  their  literary  resources.  How  could  they 
realize  their  ambition  to  be  men  of  letters  when  the  books  they 
needed  were  mostly  still  in  Europe?  Could  they  only  wait  for  the 
seemingly  distant  time  when  America  would  have  libraries, 
universities,  and  traditions  like  the  Old  World?  These  ques- 
tions Ticknor  and  Everett  attempted  to  answer. 

B ORN  in  Boston  in  1791,  George  Ticknor  was  the  young- 
est active  member  of  the  Anthology  Society,  which  he  served 
as  secretary  during  its  declining  days.  His  education  was  not 
strictly  according  to  the  usual  pattern,  for  he  attended  Dart- 
mouth, his  father’s  alma  mater , instead  of  going  to  Harvard. 
After  two  years  at  college,  which  as  he  recollected  in  later 


“NOT  MEN,  BUT  BOOKS” 


179 


years  afforded  him  scant  instruction,  he  returned  to  Boston  to 
study  under  the  private  tutelage  of  the  Reverend  John  Sylves- 
ter John  Gardiner,  the  rector  of  Trinity  Church  and  president 
of  the  Anthology  Society,  a political  and  literary  conservative. 
In  1810,  Ticknor  entered  William  Sullivan’s  law  offices  to  pre- 
pare for  a legal  career.  “I  read  law,”  he  remembered,  “with  some 
diligence,  but  not  with  interest  enough  to  attach  me  to  the  pro- 
fession. I continued  to  read  Greek  and  Latin,  and  preferred  my 
old  studies  to  any  other.”20  By  the  time  he  was  nineteen  he  had 
became  an  intimate  of  the  circle  that  gathered  in  Buckminster’s 
library  on  Sunday  evenings  for  supper  and  conversation.  A 
few  years  later  he  decided  to  give  up  the  law,  go  to  Europe, 
and  become  a scholar. 

Edward  Everett,  born  in  1794,  entered  Harvard  at  the  age 
of  thirteen,  graduating  in  August  1811,  a short  time  after  the 
Anthology  Society  expired.  Like  Ticknor,  he  was  greatly  in- 
fluenced by  Buckminster.  Hoping  to  emulate  him,  he  dedicated 
himself  to  the  ministry.  After  receiving  his  master  of  arts  de- 
gree from  Harvard  in  1813,  he  was  called  to  fill  the  pulpit  at 
the  Brattle  Street  Church.  He  was  highly  successful  as  Buck- 
minster’s successor,  until  he  decided  to  accept  the  new  chair 
of  Greek  at  Harvard  and  to  go  to  Europe  in  preparation. 

As  literary  travelers,  Ticknor  and  Everett  had  certain  ad- 
vantages over  Walter,  Buckminster,  and  their  precursors.  For 
one  thing,  they  were  free  to  go  abroad  solely  for  literary  reas- 
ons; for  another,  they  traveled  chiefly  after  the  Napoleonic 
wars  had  ended;  for  still  another,  they  went  to  Europe  in  an 
era  of  vigorous  American  assertion  following  a long  period  of 
uncertainty  about  the  “Great  Experiment.”  Possibly  above  all 
they  had  the  benefit  of  an  assurance  in  the  importance  of  their 
mission  derived  from  a perceptibly  growing  sense  of  literary 
community  in  New  England.  Yet  these  favorable  circum- 
stances did  not  in  themselves  assure  the  Boston  youths  an  edu- 
cational experience  of  Europe  essentially  more  productive  than 
Walter’s  or  Buckminster’s.  They  simply  helped  to  make  fruit- 
ful the  signal  advantage  Ticknor  and  Everett  enjoyed.  This 
was  an  advantage  they  created  for  themselves,  and  it  lies  in 
their  attitude  toward  the  traditional  concept  of  travel  for  edu- 
cation. In  a letter  to  his  friend  Nathaniel  Appleton  Haven  of 


i8o  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  written  in  July  1814,  Ticknor 
states : 

My  plan,  so  far  as  I have  one,  is  to  employ  the  next  nine  months 
in  visiting  the  different  parts  of  this  country,  and  in  reading  those 
books  and  conversing  with  those  persons,  from  whom  I can  learn 
in  what  particular  parts  of  the  countries  I mean  to  visit  I can  most 
easily  compass  my  objects.  The  whole  tour  in  Europe  I consider 
a sacrifice  of  enjoyment  to  improvement.  I value  it  only  in  propor- 
tion to  the  great  means  and  inducements  it  will  afford  me  to  study  — 
not  men,  hut  hooks.  Wherever  I establish  myself,  it  will  he  only  with  a 
view  of  labor ; and  wherever  I stay,  — even  if  it  be  but  a zveek,  — I shall, 
I hope,  devote  myself  to  some  study,  many  more  hours  in  the  day  than 
I do  at  home. 

A month  later  he  elaborates  upon  the  purpose  of  his  European 
journey  to  Charles  Davies  of  Portland,  Maine: 

I began,  long  ago,  a course  of  studies  which  I well  knew  I could 
not  finish  on  this  side  the  Atlantic ; and  if  I do  not  mean  to  relin- 
quish my  favorite  pursuits,  and  acknowledge  that  I have  trifled 
away  some  of  the  best  years  of  my  life,  I must  spend  some  time 
in  Italy,  France,  and  Germany,  and  in  Greece,  if  I can  ....  The 
truth  is,  dear  Charles,  that  I have  always  considered  this  going  to 
Europe  a mere  means  of  preparing  myself  for  greater  usefulness 
and  happiness  after  I return,  — as  a great  sacrifice  of  the  present 
to  the  future;  and  the  nearer  I come  to  the  time  I am  to  make  this 
sacrifice,  the  more  heavy  and  extravagant  it  appears.21 

The  significance  of  Ticknor’s  plans  is  apparent  in  his  simple 
intention  “to  study  — not  men,  but  books”  and  in  his  fixed  de- 
termination to  organize  his  life  in  Europe  around  study.  His 
phrasing,  “not  men,  but  books,”  indicates  that  he  was  con- 
sciously reversing  the  accepted  theory  of  travel  for  education. 
Unlike  Walter,  who  meant  “steadily  to  study,”  when  he  returned 
from  Europe,  Ticknor  realized  Europe  itself  must  be  the  scene 
of  study.  The  American  scholar  longing  to  inquire  into  “the 
stores  of  intellect”  must  seek  out  opportunities  commen- 
surate with  his  ambition.  A haphazard  tour  spent  chiefly  in 
conversing,  enjoying  the  scenery,  meditating  upon  antiquity, 
and  collecting  books  did  not  yield  the  requisite  opportunities. 
That  Everett  regarded  his  European  sojourn  in  the  same  way 
is  not  explicitly  documented  by  a similar  statement.  It  is,  none- 
theless, borne  out  by  his  interest  in  study  wherever  he  traveled 


“NOT  MEN,  BUT  BOOKS” 


181 


in  Europe.  For  instance,  explaining  his  decision  to  reside  in 
Paris  during  the  winter  of  1817  instead  of  going  to  Oxford  as 
he  had  originally  planned,  Everett  says : “But  I find  even  at 
Paris  that  I have  no  object  there  but  study;  and  Professor 
Gaisford,  at  Oxford,  writes  me  that  it  is  in  every  way  better 
that  I should  be  there  in  summer,  as  the  library  is  open  a 
greater  part  of  the  day.”22 

I-/EST  we  interpret  Ticknor’s  and  Everett’s  scholarly  am- 
bitions too  narrowly,  however,  we  must  recall  the  other  side 
of  their  story.  No  matter  how  devoted  to  books,  they  were  not 
in  any  sense  cloistered  scholars.  Like  Chesterfield’s,  their  in- 
terest in  men  was  strong  and  resolute ; and  in  their  travels  it 
always  overshadowed  the  Addisonian  concern  for  the  scenic 
and  pictorial. 

Everywhere  they  went  they  made  themselves  known  to 
those  who  constituted  “the  best  company.”23  The  salons  and 
drawing  rooms  of  Paris,  Rome,  London,  Edinburgh,  Madrid, 
Lisbon,  and  Athens  knew  one  or  both  of  these  Bostonians;  and 
they  were  not  unknown  in  certain  retired  settings  that  har- 
bored celebrities.  Indeed  the  records  of  their  travels  echo  with 
the  names  of  the  illustrious : Goethe,  Madame  de  Stael,  Cha- 
teaubriand, Humboldt,  Lafayette,  Talleyrand,  Benjamin  Con- 
stant, Sismondi,  Byron,  Wordsworth,  and  Scott,  to  mention  a 
few.  Ticknor  especially  was  an  observant  student  of  men.  His 
“precocious  sense  of  the  world”24  informs  almost  every  page 
of  his  letters  and  journals  and  renders  his  impression  of  post- 
Napoleonic  society  vivid  and  entertaining  even  today.  Perhaps 
it  also  gives  the  clue  to  his  acceptance  by  the  intimate  circles 
of  that  society.  To  take  one  example,  he  visited  at  the  home 
of  the  Duchess  de  Duras  at  her  “delightful  party”  for  the 
Duchess  of  Devonshire  when  “only  five  or  six  persons”  were 
present,  among  them  Chateaubriand,  who  “read  a little  ro- 
mance on  the  Zegri  and  Abencerrages  of  Granada,  full  of  de- 
scriptions glowing  with  poetry  . . .”2S  Everett,  too,  moved 
freely  in  European  society.  On  one  occasion  he  was  presented 
to  King  Louis  XVIII;  at  another  time  he  visited  the  Duchess 
d’Angouleme,  the  daughter  of  Louis  XVI  and  Marie  Antoinette. 


1 82  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

However,  their  absorption  in  the  world  of  men  clid  not  un- 
dercut the  two  young  Bostonians’  original  intention.  When 
Ticknor  arrived  in  Paris  from  Gottingen,  he  instituted  a routine 
of  language  studies  beginning  at  seven  in  the  morning  and 
lasting  until  five  in  the  afternoon  each  day.  In  Rome  he  studied 
Italian  and,  with  the  aid  of  “the  many  books  he  carried  with 
him”  and  the  advice  of  an  archaeologist,  compiled  a copious  ac- 
count of  ancient  Rome.  In  Madrid,  fortified  by  “a  cup  of  Span- 
ish chocolate,  so  thick  it  may  almost  be  eaten  with  a fork,”  he 
sat  down  to  his  books  at  half  past  five  each  morning.  Later  in 
the  day  he  studied,  as  he  had  in  Paris,  with  instructors  who 
came  to  him.  In  Lisbon  he  established  himself  “near  the  book- 
sellers, and  the  Public  Library”  to  pursue  his  Portuguese  re- 
searches. Back  in  Paris  he  was  soon  in  “full  operation”  among 
the  “great  treasures”  of  the  King’s  Library.26  Everett  was  per- 
haps not  so  methodical  as  his  friend,  but  his  scholarly  aims 
were  as  determined.  In  Paris  he  too  spent  “many  hours  a day” 
in  the  King’s  Library,  and  in  Rome  he  devoted  himself  to  ex- 
ploring the  Vatican  libraries.  During  the  latter  part  of  his  stay 
in  Europe  he  was  less  given  to  books,  since  he  undertook  a 
hazardous  pilgrimage  to  Greece.27 

Ticknor  and  Everett,  it  becomes  apparent,  went  abroad  with 
a more  definite  and  significant  intention  than  students  of  their 
journey  have  comprehended.  It  was  this  intention  — “to  study, 
not  men,  but  books”  — that  shaped  their  visit  to  the  Old 
World.  Out  of  it  grew  an  experience  of  Europe  no  American 
had  yet  had.  Transmitting  their  inspiration  to  others,  they  be- 
came the  vanguard  of  a long  procession  of  their  fellow  country- 
men including  such  men  as  Joseph  Green  Cogswell,  George 
Bancroft,  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow,  and  John  Lothrop 
Motley.  The  cumulative  impact  of  these  travelers  upon  the  de- 
velopment of  American  literary  and  intellectual  traditions  and 
institutions  would  be  difficult  to  overestimate. 

More  conclusively  than  any  of  their  predecessors,  Ticknor 
and  Everett  represented  Margaret  Fuller’s  “thinking”  Ameri- 
can traveler.  He  is  the  American  visitor  to  Europe  “who,  recog- 
nizing the  immense  advantage  of  being  born  to  a new  world 
and  on  a virgin  soil,  yet  does  not  wish  one  seed  from  the  past 
to  be  lost.  He  is  anxious  to  gather  and  carry  back  with  him 


NOT  MEN,  BUT  BOOKS” 


183 

every  plant  that  will  bear  a new  climate  and  new  culture.  Some 
will  dwindle;  others  will  attain  a bloom  and  stature  unknown 
before.  He  wishes  to  gather  them  clean,  free  from  noxious  in- 
sects, and  to  give  them  a fair  trial  in  this  new  world.  And  that 
he  may  know  the  conditions  under  which  he  may  best  place 
them  in  that  new  world,  he  does  not  neglect  to  study  their  his- 
tory in  this.”28 

Every  student  of  New  England’s  culture  during  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century  — from  the  creation  of  the  An- 
thology Society  to  the  establishment  of  the  Boston  Public 
Library  — must  weigh  the  germinal  influence  of  the  resolve 
of  Ticknor  and  Everett  “to  study  — not  men,  but  books.” 


Notes 

1.  See  Life,  Letters,  and  Journals  of  George  Ticknor,  ed.  G.  S.  Hillard, 
Mrs.  Anna  Ticknor,  and  Miss  Anna  Eliot  Ticknor  (Boston,  1876),  I,  48-320; 
Paul  Revere  Frothingham,  Edward  Everett,  Orator  and  Statesman  (Boston  and 
New  York,  1925),  36-60.  Unless  otherwise  noted,  these  works  are  the  sources 
of  information  about  Ticknor  and  Everett  throughout  this  article. 

2.  See  Life  of  Ticknor,  II,  299-400. 

3.  See  Orie  William  Long,  Literary  Pioneers,  Early  American  Explorers  of 
European  Culture  (Cambridge,  1935),  v;  Robert  E.  Spiller,  The  American  in 
England  During  the  First  Half  Century  of  Independence  (New  York,  1926),  57- 
63;  Discovery  of  Europe,  ed.  Philip  Rahv  (Boston,  1947),  63;  Van  Wyck 
Brooks,  The  Flowering  of  New  England,  1815-1865  (New  York,  rev.  ed.  1937), 
75-7',  Henry  Adams,  History  of  the  United  States  During  the  Administration  of 
Thomas  Jefferson  (New  York,  1903),  I,  94;  Samuel  Lee  Wolff,  “Scholars”  in 
Cambridge  History  of  American  Literature,  ed.  William  P.  Trent  and  others 
(New  York,  1921),  IV,  452-3. 

4.  See  E.  S.  Bates,  Touring  in  1600,  a Study  in  the  Development  of  Travel 
as  a Means  of  Education  (Boston  and  New  York,  1912).  Also,  see  Clare  How- 
ard, English  Travellers  of  the  Renaissance  (London,  1914);  Ruth  Kelso,  The 
Doctrine  of  the  English  Gentleman  in  the  Sixteenth  Century  in  University  of  Il- 
linois Studies  in  Language  and  Literature  (Urbana,  1929),  XIV,  142-6;  George 
B.  Parks,  “Travel  as  Education”  in  Richard  Foster  Jones  and  others,  The 
Seventeenth  Century,  Studies  in  the  History  of  English  Thought  and  Literature 
from  Bacon  to  Pope  (Stanford,  1951),  264-90. 

5.  The  Letters  of  Philip  Dormer  Stanhope,  Fourth  Earl  of  Chesterfield,  ed. 
Bonamy  Dobree  (New  York,  1932),  111,1148.  The  words  occur  in  a letter 
from  Chesterfield  to  his  son  dated  May  10,  O.S.,  1748. 

6.  In  The  British  Essayists,  ed.  A.  Chalmers  (Boston,  1864),  IX,  304-7. 

7.  Joseph  B.  Felt,  Memorials  of  William  Smith  Shaw  (Boston,  1852),  160. 


1 84  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

8.  Ibid.,  161-2.  The  letter  is  dated  December  22,  1802. 

9.  Quoted  from  a portion  of  Buckminster’s  journal  printed  in  Eliza  Buck- 
minster Lee,  Memoirs  of  Rev.  Joseph  Buckminster , D.D.  and  of  His  Son , Rev. 
Joseph  Stevens  Buckminster  (Boston,  1849),  256. 

10.  The  words  are  in  Walsingham’s  advice  to  a nephew.  See  Conyers 
Read,  Mr.  Secretary  Wal singh am  and  the  Policy  of  Queen  Elisabeth  (Cambridge, 

1925),  I,  19. 

11.  Quoted  from  a portion  of  Pickering’s  diary  printed  in  Mary  Orne 
Pickering,  Life  of  John  Pickering  (Boston,  1887),  194. 

12.  Edward  Warren,  The  Life  of  John  Collins  Warren  (Boston,  i860),  I, 
26.  This  passage  occurs  in  a letter  from  Warren  to  his  father  dated  August  19, 

1799. 

13.  “Letters  from  Europe,  No.  1.”  Monthly  Anthology  and  Boston  Review, 
III  (January,  1806),  4. 

14.  Lee,  Memoirs  of  the  Buckminsters,  274-5.  From  Buckminster’s  journal. 

15.  “Original  Letters  from  Europe,  No.  5,”  Anthology,  III  (May,  1806), 
227. 

16.  Quoted  in  Josiah  Quincy,  History  of  the  Boston  Athenaeum,  with  Bio- 
graphical Notices  of  Its  Deceased  Founders  (Cambridge,  1851),  15-6.  The  italics 
are  mine. 

17.  From  a review  of  Mrs.  Lee’s  Memoirs  of  the  Buckminsters  in  the  Chris- 
tian Examiner,  XLVII  (September,  1849),  183. 

18.  Lee,  Memoirs  of  the  Buckminsters,  408.  The  remark  occurs  in  a letter 
from  Buckminster  to  William  Smith  Shaw  dated  April  3,  1807. 

19.  See  Anthology,  II  (November,  1805),  607-8;  VIII  (May,  1810),  345-56. 
Buckminster’s  library  may  be  studied  in  Catalogue  of  the  Library  of  the  Late 
Rev.  J.  S.  Buckminster  (Boston,  1812),  an  auction  catalogue.  On  the  general 
subject  of  German  inffluence  in  New  England,  see  Harold  S.  Jantz,  “German 
Thought  and  Literature  in  New  England,  1620-1820,”  Journal  of  English  and 
Germanic  Philology,  XLI  (January,  1942),  1-45.  Jantz  points  out  Ticknor’s 
inaccurate  recollection  of  his  introduction  to  German  letters. 

20.  Life  of  Ticknor,  I,  9. 

21.  Ibid.,  I,  23,  24.  The  italics  are  mine.  Cf.  George  Ticknor  to  Elisha 
Ticknor,  July  6,  1816,  in  ibid.,  I,  102;  Elisha  Ticknor  to  George  Ticknor,  Au- 
gust 9,  1815,  in  ibid.,  Ill,  501.  Also,  cf.  George  Ticknor  to  Stephen  Higginson, 
May  20,  1816  in  Long,  Literary  Pioneers,  12-3. 

22.  Frothingham,  Edivard  Everett,  42.  For  the  full  letter  from  which  this 
is  quoted  see  T.  W.  Higginson,  “Gottingen  and  Harvard  Eighty  Years  Ago,” 
Harvard  Graduates'  Magazine,  VI  (September,  1897),  14-15.  It  is  dated  Sep- 
tember 17,  1817;  the  addressee,  however,  is  not  identified. 

23.  Chesterfield,  Letters,  III,  1148. 

24.  Rahv,  Discovery  of  Europe,  63. 

25.  Life  of  Ticknor,  I,  255. 

26.  Ibid.,  I,  1 3 1-2,  1 71,  187,  248,  252. 

27.  Frothingham,  Edward  Everett,  42-60. 

28.  The  Writings  of  Margaret  Fuller,  ed.  Mason  Wade  (New  York,  1941), 
424.  From  a letter  by  Margaret  Fuller  to  Horace  Greeley’s  Tribune  in  1848. 
This  letter  is  quoted  in  part  in  Rahv’s  Discovery  of  Europe,  166-70. 


The  Impostures  of  the  Devil 

By  ZOLTAN  HARASZTI 

ONE  of  the  noblest  and  most  important  — and  also  one 
of  the  least  known  — ■ books  of  the  sixteenth  century  is 
De  Praestigiis  Daemonum  ( The  Impostures  of  the  Devil ) by 
Johann  Weyer,  first  published  at  Basel  in  1563.  The  author, 
who  wrote  under  the  Latinized  name  of  Wierus,  was  a native 
of  Grave  on  the  Maas  in  Brabant  and  served  as  physician  to 
the  Duke  of  Cleves  from  1550  till  1588,  that  is,  from  his  thirty- 
fifth  year  until  his  death. 

Weyer  was  a deeply  religious  man,  yet  it  is  doubtful  that  he 
believed  in  the  existence  of  the  devil.  To  be  sure,  he  often 
speaks  of  Satan  and  his  demons  as  the  direct  originators  of 
many  obsessions;  but  all  such  references  of  his  leave  a taste  of 
scepticism  behind,  as  if  they  had  been  used  in  irony,  as  a mere 
form  of  speech,  or  simply  to  cover  cases  which  seemed  impos- 
sible to  explain.  And  he  certainly  did  not  believe  in  the  exist- 
ence of  witches,  those  poor  deluded  women  — mulierculae , 
miseriae,  dementate  delusiae  — who  as  the  allies  and  instruments 
of  the  devil  were  supposed  to  perform  the  most  fantastic  super- 
natural deeds,  or  rather  misdeeds.  In  an  age  when  the  horrible 
delusion  exacted  the  torture  and  death  of  innumerable  thous- 
ands all  over  Europe,  this  simple  doctor  dared  to  come  forward 
and  declare  that  all  the  cruelty  and  bloodshed  were  due  to 
bigotry  and  ignorance.  The  works  of  the  witches,  he  stoutly 
maintained,  were  nothing  but  fables,  for  “all  acts  which  were 
beyond  nature  were  nothing  but  illusion  and  fantasy.”  Thor- 
oughly versed  in  Scripture  and  the  writings  of  the  Church 
Fathers,  Weyer  was  ready  to  meet  all  theological  arguments; 
yet  he  wrote  first  of  all  as  a medical  man.  In  recognizing  a 
large  number  of  mental  diseases,  and  in  prescribing  the  proper 
treatment  for  them,  he  was  the  founder  of  modern  psychiatry. 
But  beyond  that,  he  was  one  of  the  foremost  emancipators  of 
the  human  spirit. 

The  De  Praestigiis  Daemonum  may  be  regarded  as  a reply  to 
the  Malleus  Maleficarum,  which  had  been  the  guide  and  manual 


185 


1 86  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

of  all  witch-persecutors  in  the  past  seventy-five  years.  Weyer 
frequently  quotes  from  that  terrible  book,  but  only  to  show  up 
its  barbarity.  “One  has  only  to  read  this  volume,  the  silly  and 
often  godless  absurdities  of  the  theologians  Jacob  Sprenger 
and  Heinrich  Kramer  and  compare  it  with  my  work,”  he  states 
at  the  outset,  “to  see  clearly  that  I expound  an  entirely  differ- 
ent, a totally  opposite  point  of  view.”  Every  chapter  of  the  De 
Praestigiis  contains  some  novelty  — the  new  interpretation  of 
a Biblical  text,  the  unmasking  of  a fraud,  or  the  fresh  analysis 
of  a case  history  — for  the  demolishing  of  the  old  superstitions. 

The  work  aroused,  of  course,  great  interest.  New  and  con- 
stantly enlarged  editions  appeared  in  1564,  1566,  and  1568,  and 
two  more  in  1577  and  1583.  In  1565  a German  translation  by 
Johann  Fuglin  was  published  and  later  twice  reprinted.  Dis- 
satisfied with  this  unauthorized  version,  Weyer  issued  his  own 
in  1567.  A French  translation  by  Jacques  Chouet  appeared  in 
1569  and  was  reprinted  in  1579.  Finally  an  edition  of  Weyer’s 
collected  works  was  issued  in  1660. 

The  De  Praestigiis  won  over  some  people  and  exasperated 
many  more.  His  followers  greeted  Weyer  as  a liberator  of 
their  consciences,  but  his  enemies  branded  him  “a  witch-advocate” 
and  “a  master  wizard.”  Cornelius  Loos,  a canon  of  Mainz, 
Simon  Sulzer,  Bishop  of  Basel,  and  the  Jesuit  Fathers  Paul 
Laymann  and  Friedrich  von  Spee  were  among  his  most  promi- 
nent pupils,  as  was  the  Englishman  Reginald  Scott,  whose  The 
Discoverie  of  Witchcraft , published  in  1584,  was  largely  based 
upon  the  De  Praestigiis.  Above  all,  several  German  princes  lis- 
tened to  Weyer.  For  a time  he  had  reason  to  be  optimistic.  “I 
cannot  offer  enough  thanks  to  God,”  he  wrote  in  his  De  Lamiis 
( Of  Witches ),  “that  Pie  has  let  me  present  proofs  which  have 
in  many  places  dissipated  the  rage  of  wading  in  the  blood  of  in- 
nocents, and  have  stopped  the  wild  cruelty  of  the  devil  in  the 
torture  of  human  beings.  The  reward  of  my  book  about  the 
impostures  of  the  devil  is  that  certain  high  authorities  not  only 
treat  those  wretched  old  women  whom  the  mob  calls  witches 
more  mildly,  but  even  absolve  them  from  capital  punishment. 
Congratulatory  letters  from  the  ablest  scholars  of  every  class 
and  creed  amply  testify  to  the  success  of  my  waking  nights,  as 
they  apparently  are  adopting  my  views  with  all  their  hearts.” 


THE  IMPOSTURES  OF  THE  DEVIL 


187 


But  the  fury  of  Weyer’s  enemies  did  not  wait  long.  The  theo- 
logical faculties  of  Heidelberg,  Trier,  and  Cologne  could  hardly 
find  words  strong  enough  to  express  their  condemnation. 
Among  his  bitterest  antogonists  were  Jean  Bodin,  the  French 
political  thinker,  who  devoted  a long  session  of  his  Demonoma- 
nie  to  a refutation  of  Weyer’s  teachings,  and  Martin  Del  Rio, 
the  Spanish  Jesuit  of  Antwerp,  whose  Disquisitiones  Magicae,  a 
worthy  sequel  to  the  Malleus , regards  the  slightest  doubt  on  the 
subject  of  witchcraft  as  heresy.  Indeed,  the  good  effects  of  the 
De  Pracstigiis  were  only  temporary.  The  persecution  of  the 
witches  went  on  with  even  greater  ferocity  than  before,  reach- 
ing its  most  savage  excesses  at  the  close  of  the  century. 

The  Boston  Public  Library  has  copies  of  the  1568  and  1577 
editions  of  the  De  Praestigiis.  The  first  is  an  octavo  of  over 
seven  hundred  pages,  and  the  second  a large  quarto  which  in- 
cludes also  Weyer’s  later  works,  namely,  the  Liber  Apologeticus, 
the  Pseudo -M onarchia,  and  the  De  Lamiis.  This  latter  volume  be- 
longed to  Theodore  Parker,  whose  library,  numbering  nearly 
sixteen  thousand  volumes,  is  one  of  the  most  valued  posses- 
sions of  the  institution.  Parker’s  signature  with  the  date  “Janu- 
ary 27,  1851”  appears  on  the  fly-leaf  of  the  book. 

T HE  De  Praestigiis  was  dedicated  to  William  III,  Duke  of 
Cleves.  Weyer  was  lucky  in  his  patron.  Duke  William  was  an 
enlightened  man;  and,  as  a son-in-law  of  the  Emperor  Ferdi- 
nand I,  was  also  powerful  enough  to  secure  immunity  for  his 
physician  from  persecution.  It  was  at  his  castle  at  Hambach, 
near  Jiilich,  that  the  De  Praestigiis,  the  result  of  some  twelve 
years’  labor,  was  composed. 

“Of  all  the  misfortunes  which,  through  Satan’s  help,  the  count- 
less fanatical  and  corrupt  opinions  have  brought  in  our  time  to 
Christendom,”  Weyer  wrote  in  his  address  to  the  Duke,  “not 
the  smallest  is  that  which  under  the  name  of  witchcraft  has 
spread  out  like  a venomous  plant.”  The  theological  quarrels 
may  have  torn  people  asunder,  but  even  they  have  not  pro- 
duced such  a disaster  as  does  the  notion  that  childish  old  hags 
can  do  any  harm  to  men  and  animals.  “Daily  experience  shows 
what  accursed  apostasy,  what  friendship  with  the  Evil  One, 


1 88  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

what  hatred  and  dissension  among  neighbors,  what  brawls  in 
city  and  country,  how  many  murders  of  innocent  people  such  a 
belief  in  the  power  of  witches  brings  forth  . . . For  a time  one 
hoped  that,  through  the  sound  teaching  of  the  word  of  God,  its 
poison  would  be  gradually  eliminated;  but  in  the  terrible 
storms  of  these  days  it  reaches  farther  and  wider  than  ever. 
Almost  all  the  theologians  are  silent  regarding  this  godless- 
ness; doctors  tolerate  it,  and  jurists  treat  it  under  the  influence 
of  the  old  prejudices : no  one  extends  a hand  to  heal  the  deadly 
wound.”  But  the  Duke,  Weyer  knew,  agreed  with  him  “that 
witches  cannot  harm  anyone,  even  through  the  most  malicious 
will  or  the  ugliest  conjuration;  that  it  is  their  imagination,  in- 
flamed by  demons  in  a way  not  comprehensible  to  us,  and  the 
agonies  of  melancholy  that  make  them  fancy  that  they  can 
cause  all  sorts  of  evil.  For  when  the  whole  matter  is  laid  on  the 
scales  and  is  weighed,  its  absurdity  and  falsity  becomes  clearer 
than  the  day.” 

In  the  third  edition  of  his  work  Weyer  inserted  an  appeal 
also  to  the  Emperor  and  to  “all  worldly  and  ecclesiastical 
Princes” : he  hoped  that  his  labors  would  help  to  destroy  the 
centuries-old  superstition.  “This  will  come  about,”  he  wrote, 
“when  in  all  your  countries,  provinces,  and  estates  all  cases  of 
witchcraft  are  properly  judged.  Reason  will  triumph  then  over 
the  impostures  of  Satan,  the  blood  of  innocent  people  will  cease 
to  flow  so  profusely,  the  pillars  of  public  peace  will  stand  firmer,  and 
the  needle  of  conscience  will  sting  our  hearts  less  often  . . 

In  its  final  form,  the  De  Praestigiis  is  divided  into  six  books, 
each  consisting  of  thirty  to  forty  chapters.  The  first  book  deals 
with  “the  devil,  his  origin,  purpose,  and  influence”;  the  second, 
with  the  magicians  of  the  Hebrews,  Greeks,  Romans,  and  their 
latter-day  disciples;  the  third,  with  the  witches  and  their  sup- 
posed power;  the  fourth,  with  the  alleged  victims  of  witch- 
craft; the  fifth,  with  the  treatment  of  the  “bewitched”  and  the 
“obsessed”;  and  the  sixth,  with  the  punishment  of  witches, 
conjurers,  and  poisoners.  Like  earlier  writers  on  witchcraft, 
Weyer  jams  his  chapters  with  histories  of  actual  cases;  but  in- 
stead of  swallowing  their  supernatural  import,  he  shows  that 
most  of  them  can  be  explained  by  natural  causes,  either  by  ill- 
ness or  clever  fraud.  In  many  instances  he  speaks  from  personal 


THE  IMPOSTURES  OF  THE  DEVIL 


189 

experience;  indeed,  he  treated  several  “bewitched”  girls  in 
his  own  family,  restoring  their  health  with  simple  diet  and  rest. 

From  his  first  chapters  on  Weyer  insists  that  it  is  wrong  to 
attribute  natural  phenomena  to  evil  spirits,  even  if  we  cannot 
tell  their  cause.  The  might  of  the  devil  is  limited;  and  since  he 
cannot  do  anything  without  the  permission  of  God,  it  is  sacri- 
legious to  believe  that  God  has  resigned  his  power  to  the  arch- 
enemy. Further,  because  of  their  age,  poor  health,  and  stupid- 
ity, the  so-called  witches  would  hinder,  if  anything,  the  work 
of  the  devil,  who  is  prompt  and  quick.  As  a spirit,  the  devil  can 
do  many  things  which,  on  account  of  our  corporality,  go  be- 
yond human  nature;  and  if  anyone  objects  that  the  witches  per- 
form their  feats  through  their  communion  with  these  spirits, 
the  answer  is  that  the  natural  power  of  man  cannot  be  greatly 
increased  beyond  his  original  endowments. 

However,  for  much  of  the  mischief  Weyer  blamed  the  doc- 
tors. “Ignorant  and  unskilled  physicians,”  he  suggested,  “as- 
cribe to  witchcraft  all  illnesses  that  are  incurable  or  in  the  cure 
of  which  they  have  made  a mistake.  They  talk  about  it  as  a 
blind  man  does  about  color.  Thus  they  cover  their  ignorance, 
as  do  crude  surgeons  their  bungling,  with  the  fantasies  of  magical 
malefactors,  when  they  themselves  are  the  real  malefactors. 
With  them  belong  also  the  swaggerers  of  the  school  of  Para- 
celsus. Aping  their  master,  they  promise  golden  mountains, 
use  all  kinds  of  tricks,  trample  on  the  old  art  of  healing,  yet  ac- 
complish nothing  . . 

TT  HE  Malleus  Maleficarum  describes  two  ways  for  the  sur- 
render of  witches  to  the  devil : the  first  is  at  a solemn  gathering 
of  the  witches  in  the  presence  of  Satan;  and  the  other  at  a pri- 
vate meeting  with  Satan.  The  new  witch  promises  to  deny  the 
Christian  faith,  not  to  adore  the  Holy  Sacrament,  and  to  trample 
the  crucifix  under  foot.  She  is  to  cook  children,  to  eat  them 
and  make  salves  out  of  their  limbs,  and,  rubbed  with  these 
salves,  to  go  on  flights  through  the  air. 

Weyer  called  the  whole  ceremony  a gross  absurdity.  “That 
all  this  nonsense  does  not  deserve  credence  is  clear,”  he  wrote. 
“The  pact  comes  about  through  the  fact  that  the  devil  poisons 


190  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

the  imagination  of  the  individual,  letting  him  see  all  sorts  of 
visions  and  hear  all  sorts  of  voices.  But  the  pact  which  one  party 
enforces  only  by  means  of  deceit  is  no  pact.  Further,  the  devil 
cannot  associate  with  people  in  such  a visible  and  tangible  way 
as  the  witches  say,  because  he  is  a spirit.”  And  he  goes  on : “It 
is  a devilish  fantasy  when  the  witches  believe  that  they  are 
able  to  kill  new-born  children  with  their  ceremonies,  or  that 
they  take  the  bodies  out  of  the  graves  and  cook  unguents  of  them  . . . 
But  supposing  that  it  were  true  — whence  could  such  an  un- 
guent have  the  power  to  carry  someone  rubbed  with  it,  or  sit- 
ting on  a chair  rubbed  with  it,  through  the  air,  as  the  Malleus 
Maleficarum  states?  All  such  ideas  are  mere  madness  and  illu- 
sion. The  witches  do  not  inflict  the  diseases  upon  us,  as  they 
themselves  confess  to  do.  This  is  all  a fable.  The  mental  confu- 
sion of  the  accused  and  the  greed  of  the  judges  are  at  the  root 
of  the  darkness.”  Chapter  5 of  the  third  book,  dealing  with  the 
phantoms  which  the  imagination  can  produce  in  melancholy 
persons,  is  a little  treatise  in  itself. 

As  is  well-known,  a large  part  of  the  Malleus  Maleficarum  is 
occupied  with  the  sexual  orgies  of  the  witches ; the  De  Praestigiis 
devotes  about  as  much  space  to  the  refutation  of  these  queer 
notions.  What  are  commonly  called  incubus  and  succubus,  Weyer 
maintains,  are  nothing  but  nightmares.  “They  are  caused  by 
vapors  which  rise  from  the  phlegm  and  the  spleen  and  cloud 
the  brain.  A person  in  that  condition  imagines  that  something 
heavy  sprawls  over  his  body.  This  usually  happens  when  he 
lies  on  his  back  and  his  stomach  is  loaded  with  food.  But  why 
should  not  melancholy  women  when  they  sleep  lying  on  their 
backs  be  occasionally  seized  with  this  illness  and  then  fancy 
that  an  unclean  spirit  has  violated  them?”  The  stories  which 
he  relates  in  this  connection  prove  that  Weyer,  though  a sober 
and  decent  man,  was  not  devoid  of  humor. 

Great  Biblical  examples  are  supposed  to  prove  beyond 
doubt  the  sufferings  which  witches  can  inflict.  The  author 
shows  that  the  Bible  speaks  of  the  devil  and  not  of  witches. 
“The  devil  can  sneak  into  human  beings  or  animals  and  ruin 
their  bodies,”  he  writes.  “In  this  way  Job  was  harmed;  Nebu- 
chadnezzar ate  grass;  and  the  Savior  healed  those  who  were 
possessed.”  He  ironically  adds:  “It  is  fortunate  that  they  are 


THE  IMPOSTURES  OF  THE  DEVIL 


191 

not  walking  around  today;  one  would  burden  old  women  with 
the  guilt  of  their  misery.  And  they  are  so  crazed  that,  under 
torture,  they  would  confess  long  lists  of  their  pretended  shame- 
ful deeds.” 

One  of  the  most  frequent  means  by  which  the  witches  were 
supposed  to  torment  their  victims  was  by  forcing  them  to 
swallow  rags,  nails,  needles,  all  sorts  of  objects.  The  bewitched 
vomited  them  forth  at  the  hearings,  thus  supplying  “irrefut- 
able” evidence  of  the  witches’  supernatural  power.  But  Weyer 
denied  that  these  strange  articles  came  from  the  stomach.  “The 
fact  that  they  are  often  larger  than  the  throat  proves  that  the 
artful  devil  puts  them  into  the  human  being’s  mouth,  without 
our  seeing  it.”  Whether  the  author  would  have  insisted  on  the 
agency  of  the  devil,  or  would  have  been  satisfied  with  a clever 
sleight-of-hand,  is  not  difficult  to  guess.  At  any  rate,  he  ex- 
plains: “It  is  impossible  that  all  that  stuff  should  come  up  from 
below,  even  if  the  alimentary  canal  should  be  stretched  as  far 
as  possible.  At  Nimwegen  someone  at  Easter  wanted  to  swal- 
low a hen’s  egg,  but  got  suffocated.  If  one  examines  the  stom- 
achs of  such  people  by  pressing  and  rubbing  them,  one  will  find 
nothing  there.”  Personal  observation  in  the  case  of  a girl 
showed  the  author  that  the  objects  thus  produced  were  moistened 
only  by  a bit  of  spittle,  and  had  no  traces  of  food  such  as  one 
would  expect  after  a meal.  He  also  had  a chance  to  see  how 
Satan  distorted  the  girl’s  eyes,  locked  her  hands  convulsively, 
and  kept  her  mouth  closed.  Her  father  and  the  people  gathered 
around  maintained  that  they  could  be  opened  only  by  making 
the  sign  of  the  cross.  “I  opened  both  her  hands  and  mouth  only 
with  trust  in  God,”  Weyer  relates.  “By  this  I surely  do  not 
want  to  say  anything  disrespectful  against  the  cross,  only 
against  its  misuse.”  This  girl  had  accused  a decent  woman  as 
the  originator  of  her  illness,  and  the  latter,  together  with  her 
mother,  was  thrown  into  prison. 

Epidemics  of  the  witchcraft  delusion  often  visited  convents. 
The  author  tells  the  stories  of  several.  At  Uvertet,  in  the  county 
of  Horn,  a poor  woman  borrowed  from  the  nuns  three  pounds 
of  salt,  which  she  afterwards  repaid  in  double  measure.  But 
from  that  time  on  the  nuns  began  to  hear  voices;  were  dragged 
from  their  beds  by  their  feet;  were  raised  into  the  air  and  then 


192 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

dropped  to  the  ground.  Two  of  them  talked  of  a black  cat, 
which  was  in  their  dormitory  shut  up  in  a basket.  Sure  enough, 
when  the  basket  was  opened  a cat  sprang  out.  The  woman,  sus- 
pected of  being  a witch,  was  put  in  prison  with  seven  others. 
“There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Satan  did  possess  these  nuns,” 
Weyer  writes,  slyly  observing:  “Even  if  the  cat  was  a natural 
one,  we  must  not  doubt  that  the  devil  had  placed  it  in  the  bas- 
ket.” At  the  convent  of  Nazareth  at  Cologne  the  nuns  were  tor- 
mented in  a similar  manner.  Among  them  was  a fourteen-year- 
old  girl  named  Gertrude,  who  had  often  seen  mad  apparitions 
in  her  bed.  Soon  the  same  thing  happened  to  several  others. 
Finally  a solemn  investigation  was  instituted.  “The  whole  cal- 
amity,” Weyer  writes,  “was  started  by  certain  debauched 
young  men  who,  having  made  the  acquaintance  of  some  of  the 
nuns,  gained  their  way  into  the  convent  . . . But  due  to  stricter 
precautions  they  had  to  desist,  whereupon  the  crafty  devil  cor- 
rupted the  imagination  of  the  poor  women,  representing  to 
them  the  images  of  those  wanton  persons.” 

The  strongest  bulwark  against  Satan,  Weyer  insists,  is  pure 
faith.  And  he  goes  on:  “If  pastors  would  build  upon  this  ground, 
the  devil’s  spook  would  become  rarer  and  rarer  in  their  par- 
ishes. But  how  many  souls  perish  through  their  false  teachings? 
They  consider  the  magical  absurdities  as  their  inherited  privi- 
lege, and  refer  wrongly  to  several  popes  who  are  said  to  have 
been  magicians.  The  ecclesiastical  exorcists  deceive  the  people 
with  their  cures  of  the  possessed.  They  are  usually  ignorant 
and  illiterate  . . . and  abuse  the  name  of  God  in  a disgraceful  way.” 
His  family  seems  to  have  supported  Weyer  valiantly  in  his 
ceaseless  fight  against  superstition.  “A  young  girl,  who  was  at 
times  terribly  tormented  by  a demon,”  he  relates,  “had  a little 
piece  of  paper  wrapped  in  leather  hung  round  her  neck.  That 
would  help  her,  she  was  told;  and  if  she  lost  it,  her  sickness 
would  return.  Everybody  worried  about  the  safety  of  the  paper. 
My  wife  Judith  heard  of  the  case,  and  asked  the  girl  to  come 
to  our  house.  She  exhorted  her  to  trust  only  in  God,  the  pro- 
tector of  all  who  are  in  trouble,  and  to  despise  the  ruses  of  the 
devil.  Then  she  built  up  her  strength  with  food  and  drink,  and 
took  the  amulet  off  from  her  neck.  The  people  watching  her 
were  frightened  and  ran  away,  thinking  that  the  raging  and 


THE  IMPOSTURES  OF  THE  DEVIL 


193 


ranting  of  the  girl  would  start  again  at  once.  But  the  girl,  left 
alone  with  my  wife  and  my  daughter  Sophia,  remained  calm. 
My  wife  opened  the  leather  and  found  no  writing  at  all  on  the 
paper.  She  threw  it  into  the  fire  in  the  presence  of  the  girl  who, 
comforted  through  the  lesson,  enjoyed  a good  appetite,  ap- 
peared merry,  and  with  a lively  faith  in  God  remained  in  good 
health  from  then  on.” 

T HE  last  book  of  the  De  Praestigiis  deals  with  the  punish- 
ment of  the  supposed  witches.  Weyer  points  out  that  the  Con- 
stitution of  Emperor  Charles  V prescribes  the  greatest  possible 
care  in  cases  of  magic,  decreeing  that  false  accusers  should  be 
punished  and  the  innocently  accused  be  paid  damages.  “How 
differently  such  people  are  treated  nowadays!”  he  exclaims. 
“Malicious  accusations  and  the  foolish  suspicion  of  the  crude 
mob  suffice  for  the  judges,  who  throw  poor  old  women,  whose 
minds  have  been  disordered  by  the  devil,  into  holes  that  are  more 
dens  of  robbers  than  prisons;  who  deliver  them  over  to  hideous 
torture  through  the  hangman,  and  have  them  interrogated  by 
unutterable  torments.  Guilty  or  not  guilty  — it  is  all  the  same; 
they  cannot  get  freed  from  the  bloody  agony  until  they  have 
confessed.  So  they  prefer  to  render  their  souls  to  God  in  flames 
rather  than  to  endure  the  torture  of  these  savage  butchers  any 
longer.  If  then  they  die,  crushed  by  the  cruelty  of  the  rack 
while  still  in  the  hands  of  the  hangman,  or  after  they,  turned 
to  skeletons,  have  been  taken  out  of  the  prisons,  people  cry  in  ju- 
bilation that  they  have  taken  their  own  lives  or  that  the  devil 
has  broken  their  necks.” 

He  addresses  the  judges  directly: 

“When  one  day  He  will  appear  to  whom  nothing  remains 
hidden,  the  Searcher  of  hearts  and  souls,  the  true  Judge  of 
all  things,  then  shall  your  works  be  manifest,  oh  you  hard 
tyrants,  you  blood-thirsty,  inhuman  and  merciless  magistrates! 
I call  you  herewith  before  the  Last  Judgment!  God  will  decide 
between  you  and  me.  The  trampled  and  buried  truth  will  rise 
up,  leap  into  your  face,  and  cry  for  vengeance  for  your  murders. 
Then  will  appear  how  much  you  know  of  the  truth  of  the  Gos- 
pel with  which  you  parade;  then  will  appear  what  the  true 


194 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

word  of  God  has  meant  to  you;  then  will  you  be  measured  on 
your  own  scale.” 

As  so  often,  the  author  gives  a case  from  his  own  experience. 
A count  who  was  well-known  to  him  had  two  women  tortured 
and  burnt  at  the  stake  on  suspicion  of  witchcraft.  One  of  them 
was  already  dead  in  consequence  of  the  torments  she  had  suf- 
fered when  they  dragged  her  out  of  the  dungeon.  The  other 
was  forced  to  confess  that  with  the  help  of  a servant  maid  she 
had  tried  to  make  a nobleman  insane.  This  maid,  too,  was  im- 
prisoned and  put  on  the  rack.  Weyer  asked  the  count  for  the 
records  of  the  examination  of  the  two  women;  and  that  was 
why  the  judge  told  him  that  he  had  never  encountered  such 
unbelievable  resistance  to  torture  as  that  of  the  maid.  To 
brand  her  as  a witch,  she  was  also  subjected  to  the  water-ordeal, 
but  she  floated,  which  was  considered  as  evidence  of  her  guilt. 
Weyer  persuaded  the  judge  that  the  nobleman  was  not  be- 
witched but  possessed  by  a demon.  Then  he  begged  the  count 
to  set  free  the  innocent  girl  and  deliver  her  to  his  family  for 
protection ; but  not  till  after  several  months  did  she  get  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  hangman.  Meanwhile  the  count  himself  — 
evidently  a paranoiac  — broke  down,  to  spend  the  rest  of  his 
life  in  bed. 

The  witches,  Weyer  emphasizes,  must  not  be  confounded 
with  the  heretics.  They  are  feeble-minded  old  women  deceived 
by  Satan,  whereas  the  heretics  are  given  to  false  creeds.  Such 
women  ought  to  be  instructed  in  the  right  religion,  instead  of 
being  thrown  into  dungeons.  In  any  case,  they  should  be  pun- 
ished less  severely  than  men,  considering  that  the  mind  and 
spirit  of  women  are  generally  much  weaker,  and  that  by  their 
very  constitution  they  are  more  apt  to  be  victims  of  delusion. 
In  a misogynist  age  Weyer,  like  his  teacher  Cornelius  Agrippa, 
pleaded  for  the  considerate  treatment  of  women  — the  favorite 
targets  of  the  fervor  and  horror  of  ascetics. 

Some  maintain,  the  author  continues,  that  the  will  to  do 
harm  itself  should  be  punished,  regardless  of  whether  it  is  ef- 
fective or  not.  One  should  distinguish  however,  he  demands,  be- 
tween the  intact  will  power  of  a sane  man  and  the  corrupted 
will  of  a troubled  person.  Madmen  and  little  children  may  have 
such  a will ; indeed,  it  is  easy  to  make  them  believe  that  they 


THE  IMPOSTURES  OF  THE  DEVIL 


195 


have  done  things  which  they  have  never  done.  “How  can  any- 
body tell  that  these  poor  women  have  contracted  an  alliance 
with  the  devil?  No  one  was  present,  no  one  can  swear  that  he 
was  a witness.  We  have  only  the  confession  of  stupid,  dis- 
traught creatures.  Such  a confession  is  either  made  under  du- 
ress or  voluntarily.  If  under  duress,  it  has  no  weight;  if  volun- 
tarily, the  acts  themselves,  such  as  flying  through  the  air, 
being  transformed  into  animals,  having  carnal  relations  with 
the  devil,  and  so  on,  are  impossible  and  therefore  false.  A legi- 
timate confession  must  be  both  true  and  possible.” 

On  the  last  pages  of  his  work  Weyer  reaffirms  his  strong 
convictions.  Turning  to  the  theologians,  doctors,  and  jurists, 
he  sums  up : 

“I  do  not  doubt  that  many  people  will  reward  my  labors 
only  with  anger  and  calumny.  They  will  censure  what  they  do 
not  understand,  and  hold  fast  at  any  price  to  what  is  traditional 
and  deep-rooted.  There  will  be  some  who  will  not  neglect  the 
opportunity  to  let  me  feel  the  claws  of  their  malice.  Theolo- 
gians will  cry  that  it  is  unseemly  for  a medical  man  to  go  out 
of  his  profession  and  attempt  the  explanation  of  Biblical  pas- 
sages. To  them  I answer  that  Saint  Luke  was  a physician  of 
Antioch,  and  I count  myself  among  those  who  endeavor  by  all 
means  of  inquiry  to  belong  to  that  royal  priesthood  of  which 
St.  Peter  and  Isaiah  speak. 

“Some  ecclesiastics  I have  accused  of  being  sorcerers,  with- 
out however  calling  them  by  name.  If  they  believe  that  they 
have  been  wronged,  I expect  them  to  appear  publicly  for  the 
defense  of  their  cause.  I will  answer  them. 

“My  medical  colleagues  will  doubtless  discover  many  a de- 
ficiency in  my  work;  they  would  have  liked  certain  matters 
more  precisely  explained  and  the  whole  linked  together  by  a 
better  method.  I know  how  inadequate  my  powers  are;  if  they 
will  prove  my  mistake,  they  may  be  sure  of  my  thanks.  Never 
will  I be  ashamed  to  admit  a fault. 

“May  the  jurists  take  no  offense  that,  in  spite  of  the  authority 
of  the  Twelve  Tables,  I do  not  believe  in  the  enchantment  of 
harvests  and  other  like  things.  But  if  malicious  men  will  ac- 
cuse me  of  misdeeds,  I will  pray  God  to  give  me  grace  to  endure 
their  attacks  with  patience.” 


196  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

In  his  last  challenge  Weyer  assured  the  magicians  them- 
selves that  he  was  not  afraid  of  their  impostures  and  delusions, 
even  if  they  intended  to  change  him  into  a beast,  throw  him  to 
the  ravens,  or  smother  him  in  a sewer : “I  have  contempt  for 
the  Delphic  oracles  by  which  vicious  persons  will  prophesy  mis- 
fortunes for  me  because  I have  desecrated  the  temple  of  Pythia. 
Against  such  visions  of  terror  I need  neither  holy  water  nor 
candles;  they  cannot  scare  me  with  spooks.  I am  not  in  the 
least  worried  if  a miserable  conjurer  pursues  me  with  his  crude 
and  silly  mutterings.  His  charms  by  which  he  claims  to  pro- 
duce prodigious  sicknesses  I hold  not  worth  a penny.  It  is  only 
the  mixers  of  poison  that  I fear,  people  who  through  drugs  and 
beverages  can  harm  us  in  actuality  and  not  only  in  imagination. 
These  I have  not  defended;  I leave  them  to  their  just  punishment.” 

With  this  he  submitted  his  work  to  the  Church,  “ready  to 
correct  and  renounce  any  error”  of  which  he  might  be  convicted. 

T HERE  is  no  English  translation  of  the  De  Praestigiis.  For- 
tunately, however,  we  have  a remarkable  study  of  the  work  in 
Dr.  Gregory  Zilboorg’s  “Johann  Weyer,  the  Founder  of  Mo- 
dern Psychiatry,”  first  delivered  as  a lecture  and  then  published 
in  his  volume  The  Medical  Man  and  the  Witch  during  the  Renais- 
sance (The  Johns  Hopkins  Press,  1935).  Dr.  Zilboorg,  a distin- 
guished psychiatrist,  discusses  Weyer’s  book  from  the  medical 
point  of  view. 

“From  the  very  outset,”  he  writes,  “Weyer  proceeded  to 
look  upon  the  demoniacal  world  about  him  as  an  enormous 
clinic  teeming  with  sick  people.  He  set  himself  the  task  of  mak- 
ing careful  clinical  studies  and  of  using  his  spare  time  to  sub- 
ject to  critical  analysis  the  entire  literature  of  his  field.”  He 
describes  the  work  as  “perhaps  the  most  complete,  at  any  rate 
the  most  intelligent  and  scientific  collection  of  psycho-patho- 
logical case  histories  that  the  sixteenth  century  has  bequeathed 
to  us.”  Weyer’s  analyses  of  demoniacal  possessions  and  witch- 
craft, he  believes,  have  covered  the  majority  if  not  all  of  the 
psycho-pathological  conditions  met  with  in  his  time.  He  was 
“the  real  inaugurator  of  scientific  method  in  relation  to  medi- 
cal psychology.” 


THE  IMPOSTURES  OF  THE  DEVIL 


197 


Weyer  was  a systematic  scientist,  whose  rationalistic  mind 
rejected  mere  speculation  and  demanded  experiment.  “First,” 
Dr.  Zilboorg  writes,  “he  obtains  a detailed  story  or  written 
record;  second,  he  talks  to  the  patient  personally  whenever  and 
wherever  possible;  third,  he  follows  up  the  case;  fourth,  he 
looks  upon  the  whole  procedure  as  a medical  method  which  is 
true  to  the  laws  of  physiology  and  psychology;  and  fifth,  he 
looks  upon  the  affliction  as  an  illness  even  when  he  sees  that  in 
some  cases  the  patient’s  will  apparently  participates  in  the  pro- 
duction of  symptoms  (malingering  or  similar  behavior).”  The 
author  lists  a number  of  diseases  which  Weyer  carefully 
studied.  The  Brabant  doctor  described  what  appears  to  have 
been  trichinosis;  gave  an  account  of  the  English  sweating  sick- 
ness; characterized  “pestilential  cough,”  probably  influenza,  and 
erysipelas,  and  left  an  essay  on  scurvy.  He  investigated  the 
phenomenon  of  pseudo-pregnancy,  and  observed  various  atre- 
sias in  women  and  the  new-born.  He  wrote  a whole  volume 
about  fhe  disease  of  wrath,  which  he  regarded  as  one  of  the 
mass-psychoses  of  the  age. 

Long  sections  of  the  De  Praestigiis  are  devoted  to  drugs  and 
poisons,  to  which  Weyer  ascribes  the  somnolent  and  stupor- 
like states  of  the  witches.  Thus  he  observes  the  effects  of  atro- 
pin  or  belladonna,  and  of  Thebiac  opium  and  henbane,  and  de- 
scribes “the  atropin  jag  — the  state  of  excitement,  the  state 
of  tremulous  anxiety,  the  optic  hallucinations,  which  are  remi- 
niscent of  our  present-day  delirium  tremens .”  Weyer  attributes 
the  sexual  phantasies  of  witches  to  the  fact  that  they  frequently 
abused  the  salves.  It  was  under  the  influence  of  such  drugs 
that  they  thought  they  saw  “theaters,  beautiful  gardens,  feasts, 
ornaments,  clothes,  handsome  young  men,  kings,  magistrates 
. . . and  devils,  ravens,  prisons,  deserts,  and  other  torments.” 
Weyer’s  discussions  of  veterinary  medicine  were  also  of  great 
importance,  considering  that  one  of  the  most  frequent  accusa- 
tions against  the  witches  was  that  they  harmed  cattle  and 
beasts.  Instead  of  condemning  these  witches  to  death,  he  ad- 
vised the  fumigation  of  stables  with  sulphur. 

With  calmness  and  objectivity  he  dealt  with  the  graver  sorts 
of  mental  maladies,  prominent  among  which  was  the  belief 
in  transformation  into  animals,  and  particularly  lycanthropy. 


198 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

People  who  speak  of  their  wanderings  as  werewolves,  he  in- 
sisted, have  a disordered  mind;  and  he  further  suggested  that 
on  encountering  dangerous  wolves  which  roam  about  and 
which  are  thought  to  be  witches,  one  should  consider  them  real 
and  shoot  them  accordingly.  In  analyzing  nightmares,  he  dis- 
covered that  there  was  “no  essential  difference  between  the  de- 
lusionary and  hallucinatory  trends  of  our  schizophrenias  or 
the  delirious  experiences  of  some  of  the  toxemias  and  the 
dreams  of  normal  individuals,”  a truth  whose  significance  has 
become  clear  only  recently  to  psychiatrists.  Moreover,  Weyer 
not  only  attempted  to  describe  the  process  of  the  formation  of 
delusions  and  hallucinations,  but  also  conceived  it  as  “a  series 
of  gradations  in  the  relationship  between  sensation  conceived 
from  external  stimuli  and  their  intra-psychic  representation.” 
With  equal  courage  he  dealt  with  the  most  advanced  forms  of 
the  various  monomanias  and  paranoid  suspicions.  All  along  he 
emphasized  the  need  of  individualization  in  therapy.  In  treat- 
ing epidemics  of  hysteria,  he  advocated  the  separation  of  the 
patients  from  each  other,  knowing  that  the  affliction  was  con- 
tagious. Above  all,  he  recognized  the  fact  that  the  patient’s  in- 
sight into  his  own  trouble  could  enormously  help  recovery. 

Weyer  fully  deserves  the  eulogy  of  Albrecht  von  Haller,  the 
great  eighteenth-century  physiologist:  “He  was  a man  whose 
spirit  tore  itself  out  of  the  confines  of  his  age,  and  who  actively 
and  forcefully  exposed  the  true  nature  of  witches  and  the  possessed.” 


THE  IMPOSTURES  OF  THE  DEVIL 


199 


Note 

The  literature  on  Weyer  is  still  meager.  All  histories  of  medicine  recognize 
his  merit,  but  usually  accord  only  a few  paragraphs  to  him.  Kurt  Sprengel’s 
great  Histoire  de  la  Medicine  (Paris,  1815-20),  however,  includes  a brief  but 
substantial  discussion  of  the  De  Praestigiis.  (Ill,  232-36.)  Wilhelm  G.  Soldan 
in  his  Geschichte  der  Hexenprocesse  (Stuttgart,  1843)  devotes  a good  chapter 
to  the  work.  (Pp.  335-45.)  In  July  1865  Dr.  Alexandre  Axenfeld  read  a paper 
before  the  medical  faculty  of  the  Sorbonne  on  “Jean  Wier  et  la  Sorcellerie,” 
which  was  published  in  book  form  in  the  following  year.  The  first  and  so  far 
only  full-length  biography,  Doctor  Johann  Weyer,  is  by  Cad  Binz  and  was 
first  published  in  Berlin  in  1885  and  a second  time  in  1896. 

The  old  French  translation  of  the  De  Praestigiis  (1569)  was  reprinted  in 
1885,  in  two  volumes,  under  the  title  Histoires,  Disputes  et  Discours  des  Illu- 
sions et  Impostures  des  Diables  ...  As  mentioned  in  the  present  article,  the 
work  has  never  been  translated  into  English.  The  Encyclopccdia  Britannica 
does  not  even  have  a notice  about  Weyer;  it  mentions  him  only  indirectly,  in 
connection  with  the  Faust  legend.  One  is  doubly  indebted,  therefore,  to  Dr. 
Gregory  Zilboorg  for  his  illuminating  study.  The  same  writer  also  has  an  ex- 
cellent chapter  on  Weyer  in  his  History  of  Medical  Psychology  (New  York, 
1941),  206-44. 

Materials  toward  a History  of  Witchcraft  collected  by  Henry  Charles  Lea 
contains  an  extensive  abstract  of  the  De  Praestigiis,  giving  brief  summaries,  or 
at  least  indications,  of  almost  every  chapter  (University  of  Pennsylvania  Press, 
1939,  II,  490-532).  This  abstract  is  very  useful,  although  Dr.  Lea  does  not 
seem  to  have  done  full  justice  to  Weyer’s  freedom  of  mind.  He  thought  that 
Weyer  was  logical  only  as  regards  the  witches,  but  was  himself  credulous 
concerning  the  magicians  whom  he  believed  to  be  “taught  and  aided  by  the 
devil.”  Yet  even  Dr.  Lea  admitted  that  Weyer’s  devil  was  “evidently  a very 
different  being  from  that  of  popular  belief,  and  he  has  gone  a long  way  to- 
wards dethroning  him”;  and  that  “if  he  had  gone  further,  he  probably  would 
not  have  been  listened  to  at  all.” 


Prophecies  of  the  Popes 

By  MARGARET  MUNSTERBERG 

THE  Boston  Public  Library  has  added  to  its  manuscript 
collections  two  curious  little  volumes  — copies  of  the 
Prophetiae  de  Pontificibus  by  the  twelfth-century  Abbot 
Joachim  of  Calabria.  The  work,  which  was  extremely  popular 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  is  a series  of  prophecies  relating  to  the 
reigns  of  the  popes.  Both  copies  contain  additional  material  at- 
tributed to  Anselm,  Bishop  of  Marsico.  The  first  manuscript 
was  apparently  done  in  the  late  fifteenth  century,  as  the  last 
pope  mentioned  died  in  1484.  The  other  manuscript  probably 
dates  from  the  early  seventeenth  century. 

The  earlier  manuscript  consists  of  twenty  vellum  leaves,  all 
except  one  having  the  portrait  of  a pope,  or  a picture  symbol- 
izing the  reign  of  a pope,  on  one  side  and  the  interpretative 
text  on  the  other.  The  exception  is  the  impressive  portrait  of 
the  Abbot  Joachim  himself,  bearded  and  in  a monastic  habit, 
sitting  at  a desk  and  writing  his  prophecies.  The  pictures  may 
be  the  work  of  a Florentine  artist.  The  drawing  betrays  con- 
siderable skill,  for  the  postures  and  gestures,  and  especially  the 
facial  expressions,  are  individual  and  alive.  The  tinting,  mostly 
in  crimson,  blue,  brown,  and  scarlet,  is  less  carefully  carried 
out.  The  text  of  the  prophecies  is  in  Latin,  but  the  biographical 
notes  about  the  popes  are  in  most  cases  in  Italian. 

The  later  manuscript  has  twenty-eight  paper  leaves  bearing 
the  papal  portraits  and  symbols  on  the  recto  side  with  the  text 
in  Italian  beneath,  while  the  Latin  is  opposite,  on  the  verso  of 
the  preceding  picture.  These  pictures,  which  follow  for  the 
most  part  the  same  designs  as  those  of  the  earlier  manuscript, 
are  drawings  in  ink  outline,  with  shadings  of  a light  brownish 
wash.  The  faces  are  commonplace  in  comparison  with  those  of 
the  earlier  work.  The  names  of  the  popes,  written  in  large  let- 
ters to  the  left  of  the  pictures,  do  not  correspond  to  the  names 
accompanying  the  same  designs  in  the  fifteenth-century  manu- 
script, but  seem  to  be  inscribed  with  complete  arbitrariness. 
The  first  picture  represents  the  Abbot  Joachim,  holding  in 


200 


PROPHECIES  OF  THE  POPES 


201 


each  hand  a volume  with  the  words  “Vitae  Patrum,”  which  he 
presents  on  one  side  to  a group  of  monks  and  on  the  other  to 
a group  of  nuns.  The  title  states  that  the  volume  also  contains 
the  prophecies  of  Father  John  Maria  de  Vevallo-Vercellese. 

The  first  printed  edition  of  Joachim’s  Prophecies  appeared 
in  Venice,  published  by  Hieronymus  Porrus  in  1589.  In  1600 
Giovanni  Battista  Bertoni  produced,  in  the  same  city,  another 
edition,  of  which  the  Library’s  Sabatier  collection  of  Francis- 
cana  has  a copy.  Entitled  Vaticinia  sen  Praedictiones  Illustrium 
Virorum,  the  volume  consists  mainly  of  the  prophecies  made  sup- 
posedly by  the  Abbot  Joachim  and  by  his  contemporary, 
Bishop  Anselm  of  Marsico.  The  book  has  finely  executed  en- 
gravings, similar  in  design  and  symbolism  to  the  drawings  of  the 
two  manuscripts;  the  text,  which  has  variant  readings  in  the 
margins,  also  corresponds  to  the  manuscript  texts,  although 
the  juxtaposition  of  text  and  portrait  differs  in  the  three  books. 
The  printed  volume  contains  diagrams  of  the  prophetic  wheel 
(rota)  which  apparently  was  in  vogue  at  the  time.  This  is  a 
disk,  with  the  spokes  of  a wheel  in  the  center,  divided  into 
a certain  number  of  sections,  each  with  the  name  and  the  ac- 
cession date  of  a pope.  The  book  has  one  wheel  for  the  pro- 
phecies of  Joachim,  one  for  those  of  Anselm,  and  others  which 
extend  through  the  sixteenth  century. 

This  volume  is  invaluable  for  the  understanding  of  the  manu- 
scripts. In  the  first  place,  it  makes  it  evident  that  the  twenty 
prophecies  in  the  early  manuscript  include  not  only  those  at- 
tributed to  the  Abbot  Joachim  but  also  those  of  Bishop  Anselm. 

DaNTE,  in  the  twelfth  canto  of  the  Paradiso,  sees  in  the 
circle  of  the  sun : 

Raban  e quivi,  e lucemi  da  lato 

II  Calavrese  abate  Giovacchino, 

Di  spirito  profetico  dotato. 

“Raban  [Maur]  is  there  and,  shining  upon  me  at  his  side,  the 
Calabrian  abbot  Joachim,  endowed  with  prophetic  spirit.” 
One  must  take  the  great  poet’s  word  for  it  that  Joachim  had 
prophetic  vision,  even  though,  according  to  his  biographers, 


202 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 


the  Abbot  said  of  himself  that  he  was  not  given  the  spirit  of 
prophecy,  but  the  spirit  of  intelligence.  Perhaps  one  may  say 
that  there  are  two  Joachims,  one,  the  historic  monk  about 
whom  certain  facts  are  known,  and  the  other,  a semi-legendary 
figure,  whose  ideas  were  interpreted  by  later  generations  in 
accordance  with  particular  spiritual  trends. 

Giovanni  Gioachimo  (Joachim)  was  born  in  Celico  near 
Cosanza,  in  Calabria,  about  1132.  At  an  early  age  he  made  a 
pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land.  Gabrielle  Barrio,  a Franciscan 
biographer  of  the  sixteenth  century,  tells  of  miracles,  such  as 
the  emergence  of  a river  in  a desert,  when  Joachim  was  dying 
of  thirst;  and  of  a sudden  illumination  which  took  place  on  the 
Mount  of  the  Transfiguration,  where  he  had  passed  the  Lenten 
weeks  in  fasting  and  prayer.  After  his  return  from  Jerusalem, 
Joachim  entered  the  Cistercian  monastery  of  Sambacina  di 
Luzzi  in  his  native  province,  then  the  Abbey  of  Corazzo,  and, 
after  being  ordained  priest,  was  made  Abbot  in  1177.  He  had 
connections  with  several  popes,  and  visited  Urban  III  at 
Verona.  Clement  III  ordered  him  to  complete  his  written  works, 
and  Celestin  III  sanctioned  his  new  monastic  foundation. 
For  the  Abbot  Joachim  was  not  content  to  remain  a conven- 
tional administrator ; his  restless  spirit  drove  him  to  the 
greater  austerity  of  the  hermitage  Petralata.  Finally,  he  went 
with  some  companions  into  the  Sila  mountains  and  founded 
there  the  monastery  of  St.  Giovanni  in  Fiore,  with  a more 
ascetic  rule  of  his  own.  A number  of  his  followers,  as  the 
Franciscan  biographer  relates,  “flourished  in  sanctity,”  and 
out  of  this  center  grew  the  wide-spread  Florensic  Order. 
Joachim  was  revered  during  his  lifetime  as  a saintly  man  and 
a prophet.  He  died  in  1202. 

Among  the  numerous  works  to  which  Joachim’s  name  has 
been  attached,  the  Jesuit  scholar  Franz  Ehrle  listed  (in  the 
Kirchcnlexikon ) nine  as  genuine,  of  which  only  three  are  un- 
questionably accepted  — the  Concordance  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  the  Commentary  on  the  Apocalypse  and  the  In- 
strument of  Ten  Strings.  The  doubtful  and  spurious  works 
number  fifteen,  among  them  the  Prophecies  of  the  Popes. 

Joachim  expressly  submitted  to  the  judgment  of  the  Church. 
After  his  death,  however,  his  reputation  underwent  transform- 


PROPHECIES  OF  THE  POPES 


203 


ation  in  two  directions.  The  Lateran  Council  of  1215  con- 
demned his  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  as  set  forth  in  a treatise 
against  Peter  Lombard;  but  five  years  later  Pope  Honorius 
III  forbade  any  construction  of  this  decision  which  would  re- 
flect on  the  orthodoxy  of  Joachim,  and  declared  his  Order  to 
be  “regular  and  salutary.”  The  significance  of  the  Joachimite 
movement  and  the  controversies  it  roused  lies  elsewhere, 
namely  in  the  interpretation  of  his  visionary  doctrine  of  the 
Eternal  Gospel.  (Those  who  wish  to  study  the  subject  may 
turn,  among  other  works,  to  Renan’s  lucid  chapter  on  the 
Eternal  Gospel  in  his  Nouvelles  Etudes  d’Histoire  Religieuse 
(Paris,  1884) ; Paul  Fournier’s  Etudes  sur  Joachim  de  Flore 
(Paris,  1909) ; Felice  Tocco’s  L’Eresia  nel  Medio  Evo  (Florence, 
1884) ; Guido  Manacorda’s  Poesia  e Contemplazione  (Florence, 
1947) ; Reuter’s  Geschichte  der  religidsen  Aufkldrung  im  Mittel- 
alter  (Berlin,  1875),  and  the  learned  articles  by  Heinrich  Deni- 
fle  and  Herman  Haupt  respectively  in  the  Archiv  fur  Literatur 
und  Kirchengeschichte , volume  1,  and  the  Zeitschrift  f iir  Kirchen - 
geschichte , volume  7.) 

The  Eternal  Gospel  envisaged  by  Joachim  derives  its  name 
from  Revelation,  Chapter  14,  6:  “And  I saw  another  angel  fly 
in  the  midst  of  heaven,  having  the  everlasting  gospel  to  preach 
unto  them  that  dwell  on  the  earth  . . .”  The  life  of  the  world 
was,  according  to  Joachim,  divided  into  three  periods:  the  first 
was  dominated  by  the  Old  Testament,  the  second,  which  would 
last  until  1260,  by  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  and  the  third  would  be 
the  time  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  the  Eternal  Gospel.  The  first 
period  belonged  to  laymen,  the  second  to  the  clergy,  and  the 
third  would  belong  to  the  monks.  This  prophetic  doctrine  was 
readily  adopted  by  the  Spirituals,  the  ascetic  branch  of  the 
Franciscan  Order.  In  1254  Gerard  di  Borgo  S.  Donnino  pub- 
lished an  Intro  due  tor  ius  in  Evangelium  Aeternum,  a crystallization 
of  the  Joachimite  teachings,  which  was  condemned,  at  the  end 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  by  Pope  Alexander  VI.  However,  the 
Church  never  censured  Joachim’s  own  works  on  the  Eternal 
Gospel;  it  was  only  a provincial  council  at  Arles  which  in  1263 
forbade  the  circulation  of  his  works  — a decree  which  did  not 
in  the  least  hinder  their  being  copied  and  read. 

It  was  in  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  that  Joachim 


204 


THE  B.  P.  L,  QUARTERLY 

had  the  greatest  influence.  Indeed,  John  of  Parma,  the  General 
of  the  Franciscan  Order,  was  accused  of  preferring  the  Joachi- 
mite  doctrine  to  the  Catholic  faith.  The  Franciscan  chronicler 
Salimbene  credited  Joachim  with  a prevision  of  the  two  great 
mendicant  Orders  founded  within  the  decade  after  his  death; 
but  the  texts  which  may  be  interpreted  as  prophetic  of  these 
events  are  now  known  to  be  apocryphal.  The  reputation  of 
Joachim  as  a prophet  was  not  affected  by  the  circumspect  judg- 
ment of  Thomas  Aquinas  that  Joachim  “foretold  some  things 
true,  but  in  others  he  was  deceived.”  The  great  scholastic  could 
not  be  expected  to  be  rapturous  about  a mystic.  The  prophecies 
attributed  to  Joachim  became  increasingly  popular  in  the 
Middle  Ages. 

In  examining  the  contents  of  the  Library’s  manuscripts, 
chief  attention  will  be  given  to  the  earlier  one.  The  prophecy 
accompanying  each  picture  in  this  manuscript  was  probably 
copied  from  manuscripts  of  a much  earlier  date;  how  large  a 
part  oral  transmission  may  have  played  in  formulating  the 
text  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  determine. 

The  first  portrait  in  the  early  manscript  is  that  of  Nicholas 
V (1446-54),  who,  crowned  with  a tiara  and  holding  his  crim- 
son mantle,  watches  a dog  gripping  three  green-white-red  flags 
in  its  mouth.  The  writing  on  the  verso  begins : “And  there  will 
be  raised  a virtuous  man  who  has  the  first  name  of  the  monk  in- 
habiting the  rocky  land.”  The  same  text  in  the  printed  book 
goes  with  the  picture  of  Calistus  III,  with  which  it  properly 
belongs.  The  motto  reads:  “With  good  words  he  will  dispense 
treasure  among  the  poor”  — a reference  to  Pope  Calistus’s 
charitable  activities. 

The  second  picture  is  intended  to  represent  Clement  V 
(1305-14).  The  Pope,  holding  a book  in  one  hand,  points  a 
finger  of  the  other  at  the  serpent  coiled  round  an  apple-tree.  A 
dove  perches  on  his  shoulder.  This  picture  — in  the  printed  book 
attached  to  Benedict  XI  — has  nothing  to  do  with  the  text,  which 
belongs  with  a later  picture  depicting  a pope  on  horseback, 
leaving  a woman,  “The  Babylonian  spouse,”  standing  discon- 
solate in  a doorway.  It  may  be  noted  that  the  old  manuscript 


Boniface  VIII  from  the  “ Prophecies  of  the  Popes ” 

205 


PROPHECIES  OF  THE  POPES 


20  7 


gives  “babillonicam  sponsam,”  whereas  the  later  manuscript 
and  the  printed  book  have  “mulieris  Babilonicae  sponsum” 
(“the  husband  of  the  woman  of  Babylon”)  which  is  rather 
more  intelligible.  In  the  printed  volume  this  text  goes  with  the 
picture  of  Clement  V,  friend  of  the  French  king  Philip  the  Fair ; 
with  him  began  the  residence  of  the  popes  at  Avignon,  referred 
to  as  the  Babylonian  captivity. 

The  next  picture  is  interesting  because  of  its  symbolism. 
The  Pope,  intended  to  be  Honorius  IV  (1286-87),  is  stabbing 
a small  black  eagle  with  his  staff.  (In  the  printed  book  this  pic- 
ture belongs  with  Martin  IV,  who  “will  worry  the  eagle.”) 
The  text  in  the  manuscript,  which  again  has  no  connection  with 
the  picture  is  not  flattering:  “Take,  you  usurper,  the  highest 
honors;  you  useless  and  sterile  tree,  who  think  you  are  doing 
great  things,  while  you  are  weak  in  mind  and  body  . . In  the 
later  manuscript  both  text  and  picture  for  Honorius  IV  cor- 
respond to  those  in  the  printed  volume;  the  picture  shows  a 
young  man  swinging  a club  at  the  helpless  pope,  who  holds  a 
large  key.  In  the  older  manuscript  the  same  design,  carried  out 
with  more  effectiveness,  appears  with  the  text  for  Nicholas  IV. 

The  following  leaf  has,  in  place  of  a figure,  the  picture  of  a 
city  surrounded  by  a wall.  A fortress,  with  round  tower  and 
pinnacles,  rises  above  the  red-roofed  buildings.  The  printed 
book  has,  with  the  corresponding  picture,  a text  which  begins, 
“Woe  to  you,  city  of  seven  hills.”  The  city  is  supposed  to  be 
Constantinople,  taken  by  the  Turks  in  1453,  during  the  pon- 
tificate of  Nicholas  V.  The  later  manuscript  also  has  the  pic- 
ture of  a city,  showing  the  front  view  of  a high  gate  with  bat- 
tlements, which  has  been  identified  as  Basel  defending  itself 
against  the  French  troops  in  the  time  of  Eugene  IV.  The 
printed  volume  has  engravings  of  both  Constantinople  and 
Basel. 

Now  comes  the  picture  of  a nude  man  sitting  on  a treasure 
box,  dispensing  gold  pieces,  which  belongs  to  Calistus  III. 
However,  the  text,  beginning  “Dead  now  and  forgotten”  seems 
to  point,  as  it  does  in  the  printed  book,  to  Pius  II.  The  motto 
“Bona  intentio,  charitas  abundabit”  might  apply  to  either  pope. 
The  later  manuscript  has  the  same  juxtaposition  of  text  and 
picture  as  the  printed  volume. 


208 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

There  follows  a striking  design  which  is  represented  in  both 
the  manuscripts  and  the  printed  book.  A sword  extends  from 
the  Pope’s  chin  and  pierces  a haloed  lamb  at  his  feet;  beside 
the  lamb  is  a small  figure  with  wings  outspread  and  with  a 
tiara  on  its  head.  The  old  manuscript  assigns  it  to  Benedict  XII, 
but  it  evidently  fits  the  text  about  John  XXII  which  begins: 
“From  the  last  generation  there  will  ascend  a bloody  beast  who 
will  cruelly  devour  his  own  innocent  son,”  and  which  goes  on 
to  say  that  a pseudo-prophet  will  arise  and  seduce  many,  “be- 
cause you  with  your  evils  have  inflicted  most  cruel  wounds  on 
the  most  gentle  lamb  . . It  was  during  the  pontificate  of  John 
XXII  that  the  sect  of  the  Fraticelli,  an  outgrowth  of  Franciscan 
zealots,  refused  to  submit  to  the  papal  authority.  It  is  not  un- 
natural, therefore,  that  the  author  or  authors  of  the  Joachimite 
prophecies  should  have  scorned  this  pontiff. 

The  most  startling  of  the  pictures  is  a green  dragon  with  a 
horned  human  head.  A sword,  a crab,  and  a salamander  are  be- 
low, and  a moon  rises  above.  The  text,  which  names  Boniface 
IX,  is  unquestionably  misplaced;  the  proper  text,  which  goes 
with  the  same  picture  in  both  the  later  manuscript  and  the 
printed  book,  refers  to  Urban  VI,  with  the  motto  “Thou  art 
terrible,  who  shall  resist  thee?”  The  legend  explains:  “This  is 
the  last  wild  beast  which  will  pull  down  the  stars.  Then  the 
birds  will  take  flight,  and  only  reptiles  will  remain.”  Following 
the  prophecy,  some  historical  information  is  given  about  Ur- 
ban VI,  “in  whose  time  there  was  a schism  in  the  Church,  as 
another  Pope,  who  was  called  Clemens,  was  elected  at  Fondi.” 

A picture  of  a Pope  holding  keys  in  one  hand  and  a three- 
pronged staff  in  the  other,  while  an  eagle  clings  to  his  mantle 
and  a cock  to  the  staff,  belongs  in  the  early  manuscript  with 
Benedict  XI.  It  is  the  same  design  which  in  the  printed  book 
represents  Boniface  VIII,  with  the  text:  “He  wounds  the  cock, 
deplumes  the  eagle,  and  does  not  fear  the  dove  . . 

It  is  unnecessary  to  make  a comparison  of  all  the  pictures 
and  legends.  The  popes  to  whom  the  early  manuscript  assigns 
its  remaining  pictures  are  Alexander  V,  John  XVIII,  Gregory 
XI,  Urban  V,  Pius  II,  and  finally  Sixtus  IV. 

The  impression  that  one  gains  on  examining  the  two  manu- 
scripts and  the  printed  book  is  that  certain  basic  patterns  of 


PROPHECIES  OF  THE  POPES 


209 


symbolic  design  were  transmitted  through  generations,  varied 
according  to  the  imagination  of  the  artists.  These  were  linked 
with  the  prophecies,  but  the  pictures  and  their  texts  sometimes 
appeared  in  odd  combinations.  What  they  all  have  in  common 
is  a bold,  rebellious  attitude  — and  the  association  with  the 
name  of  the  Abbot  Joachim,  which  stood  originally  for  the  cult 
of  pure  spirit  but  was  forced  in  the  course  of  centuries  to  lend 
its  sanction  to  partisan  strife  and  bitter  invective. 


Contemporary  French  Prints 

By  ARTHUR  W.  HEINTZELMAN 

IN  January  of  last  year  the  Print  Department  of  the  Boston 
Public  Library  was  asked  by  the  Cultural  Division  of  the 
United  States  Embassy  in  Paris  and  the  Comite  National 
de  la  Gravure  Franqaise  to  organize  exchange  exhibitions  in 
the  graphic  arts  by  living  artists.  An  Honorary  Committee  of 
Curators  of  Prints  and  Directors  of  a number  of  our  leading 
museums  chose  and  sponsored  a representative  exhibition  by 
American  artists,  which  was  inaugurated  by  special  invitation 
in  the  Galerie  Mansart  of  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale  on  De- 
cember io,  1951.  These  prints  are  now  traveling  through  the 
important  art  centers  in  the  Provinces  of  France,  and  at  pres- 
ent are  in  Rouen. 

The  French  exhibition  had  its  vernissage  in  the  Albert  H. 
Wiggin  Galleries  of  the  Boston  Public  Library  early  in  Oc- 
tober. In  introducing  this  comprehensive  group  of  prints,  it  is 
hoped  that  this  remarkable  collection  of  contemporary  work 
will  be  the  precursor  of  future  exchanges  between  our  two 
countries. 

A number  of  the  older  artists  included  in  this  exhibition 
were  among  those  who  created  a renaissance  in  the  graphic 
arts  just  before  the  turn  of  the  century.  This  rebirth  came  with 
an  impetuous  forward  movement  which  included  all  print  me- 
diums, and  it  seems  only  natural  that  France  should  have  fos- 
tered the  revival.  As  in  the  past,  Paris,  the  center  of  creative 
temperament,  led  the  way  with  her  inventiveness,  imagination, 
and  interpretive  independence  in  developing  a new  approach 
to  the  copper,  wood,  and  stone  mediums. 

Rarely  does  one  have  the  opportunity  to  view  so  complete 
a representation  of  prints  by  contemporary  French  masters. 
It  is  composed  of  one  hundred  and  seventy-three  prints,  which 
give  a comprehensive  idea  of  the  important  place  occupied  in 
the  art  world  by  the  fifty-six  artists  and  of  the  tremendous  in- 
fluence they  exercise  in  the  realm  of  prints.  To  indicate  in  a 


210 


CONTEMPORARY  FRENCH  PRINTS 


21 1 


measure  the  importance  of  contemporary  print-making  in 
France,  its  possibilities,  aims,  and  influence  on  other  nations, 
a short  survey  of  the  work  created  in  this  new  movement  — 
and  well  represented  here  — should  be  of  great  interest  to 
American  artists,  collectors,  and  laymen. 

It  should  be  noted  that  in  no  instance  is  there  any  peculiarity 
of  method.  On  the  contrary,  the  results  are  based  upon  a thor- 
ough foundation  of  experience  and  technical  training.  The  work 
is  the  result  of  natural  development,  profound  perception,  and 
experiment.  It  is  manual  only  in  that  it  possesses  enough  stress 
on  technique  to  capture  the  fluidity  and  originality  of  the 
artist’s  mind  as  a contributing  force  and  not  as  a means  to  an 
end.  These  prints,  representing  all  schools  of  thought,  contain 
in  their  contemporary  ideas  and  manner  of  handling  evidence 
of  the  natural  outgrowth  of  an  earlier  and  profound  appren- 
ticeship. 

The  present  high  standard  in  French  print-making  is,  to  a 
great  degree,  the  result  of  the  fertile  imagination  of  Ambroise 
Vollard,  who  envisioned  the  impressionists  as  graphic  artists 
using  the  same  principles  and  means  as  they  did  on  canvas,  even 
though  they  were  painters  and  not  engravers  by  profession.  He 
stimulated  their  interest  by  commissioning  them  to  carry  out 
a series  of  subjects  in  the  medium  of  their  own  choosing.  He 
believed  in  their  innate  judgment  and  in  their  ability  to  produce 
prints  which  would  be  sensitive  accompaniments  to  their  paint- 
ing. That  Vollard  was  rewarded  in  this  far-reaching  vision  is 
revealed  by  the  fact  that  the  modern  school  of  French  engraving 
is  known  to  be  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  diversified  of  any 
period  in  France.  Not  only  the  graphic  arts  but  modern  book- 
craft  owes  much  to  these  artists.  During  the  past  half-century, 
some  of  France’s  greatest  artists,  including  several  whose  works 
form  an  important  contribution  to  this  exhibition,  found  an 
outlet  to  their  creative  expression  through  book  illustration. 
Among  these  are  such  illustrious  artists  as  Picasso,  Matisse, 
Braque,  Segonzac,  Derain,  Rouault,  Dufy,  and  Chagall. 

“Grand  Profil  de  Femme,”  “Les  Saltimbanques,”  “Le  Bain,” 
“Homme  et  Femme,”  and  “Femme  dans  un  Fauteuil”  are  charac- 
teristic of  the  genius  of  Picasso,  and  represent  several  of  his  in- 
teresting periods.  The  amazing  directness  with  which  they  are 


212  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

executed  makes  us  feel  that  they  concern  only  himself,  and  are 
done  with  as  much  individuality  and  freedom  as  his  painting's. 

The  prints  by  Matisse  are  familiar  in  America,  and  it  is  a well- 
known  fact  that  they  have  influenced  many  young  artists  here 
and  abroad.  In  his  three  plates  of  “Visage  de  Femme”  and 
“Buste  de  Femme,  de  Profil  a Gauche,”  done  in  pure  line,  we 
find  that  his  needle  possessed  the  same  sensitive  and  distinct 
qualities  as  his  brush.  In  “L’Apres-midi,”  a lineoleum  cut,  there 
is  an  immediate  reaction  to  his  cutting  tool,  which  is  domin- 
ated by  his  original  and  fertile  mind. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Dufy’s  etchings  and  lithographs, 
“Baigneuses,”  “L’Odalisque  a Nice,”  “L’ Antiliaise,”  “Petite 
Baigneuse,”  and  “Mozart,”  lose  none  of  the  adventurous  spirit 
that  he  achieves  in  other  mediums,  although  they  are  entirely 
different.  They  are  executed  in  a scintillating  manner  in  an 
even  light,  with  the  same  decision  and  clarity  which  is  charac- 
teristic of  all  his  work. 

Utrillo  is  a singer  of  Montmartre  in  both  his  paintings  and 
lithographs.  His  five  prints,  “Montmartre,  rue  St.  Vincent,” 
“Montmartre,  rue  de  Mont-Cenis,”  “Le  Maquis  a Montmartre,” 
“Rue  des  Saules,”  and  “Moulin  de  la  Galette,”  are  strong  ren- 
ditions of  favorite  subjects  which,  although  limited  in  area,  be- 
speak an  art  that  is  free  and  big  in  feeling.  Utrillo  possessed  a 
natural  gift  for  setting  down  tone  values  of  light  and  shade, 
and  of  open-air  perspective.  His  work  indicates  that  his  subject 
exists  in  his  subconscious  mind,  for  one  is  at  a loss  for  an  ex- 
planation of  that  which  seems  to  be  his  limitation  and  is  at  the 
same  time  his  strength  and  simple  means  of  expression. 

Dunoyer  de  Segonzac’s  early  drawings  in  pen  and  ink  had 
always  held  promise  as  preliminaries  to  his  work  on  copper. 
That  he  is  a natural-born  etcher  is  evidenced  in  his  five  prints 
of  Versailles,  Chaville,  and  St.  Tropez,  where  his  needle  grazes 
over  the  plate  in  a feverish  pattern  of  lines  which  range  in 
value  from  a rich  accumulation  of  vibrant  blacks  to  the  most 
delicate  suggestions.  These  subjects  demonstrate  an  intuitive 
sense  of  being  in  tune  with  nature  in  that  they  suggest  atmos- 
phere, movement,  time  of  day,  and  season. 

In  whatever  Georges  Rouault  attempts,  whether  it  be  lith- 
ography or  etching,  he  reaches  a high  pitch  of  force  in  chiaro- 


Utrillo:  “ Moulin  de  la  Galette” 

A Lithograph,  Reduced 

213 


CONTEMPORARY  FRENCH  PRINTS 


215 


scuro  and  dramatic  values,  as  his  contributions  to  this  exhibition, 
all  plates  from  the  “Miserere”  series,  will  testify.  They  hold 
one  by  their  unfinished  qualities,  as  if  each  accomplishment 
was  but  a fresh  experiment. 

Other  men  of  this  “old  guard”  still  living,  and  who  were  asso- 
ciated with  Vollard,  have  important  names  which  have  made 
French  print  history.  Braque’s  interest  in  etching,  although 
limited,  displays  singular  beauty  in  two  cubistic  compositions, 
“Bass”  and  “Nature  Morte.”  The  lithographs,  “Nature  Morte” 
and  “Hera,”  are  patterns  of  color  in  characteristic  design 
which,  like  the  etchings,  are  pure  in  simple  compositional  facts 
typical  of  the  artist’s  creative  imagination.  Chagall’s  lone 
print  “Nu  a l’Eventail”  well  supports  his  fame  as  an  etcher.  It 
demonstrates  the  sensitivity  and  feelings  which  are  behind  his 
power,  finesse,  and  consciousness  of  delicate  rhythm  and  natural 
ease  in  transposing  his  thoughts  to  copper.  Derain’s  nudes  and 
“Visage  Brun”  and  “Visage  Blond”  demonstrate  his  power  in 
draughtsmanship  by  suggestion  and  hold  our  interest  as  mas- 
ter drawings  on  stone. 

The  imprint  of  individualism  which  was  made  by  artists  of 
this  group  on  the  younger  generation  of  print-makers  consti- 
tutes an  important  factor  in  the  development  of  the  graphic 
arts  in  France.  The  interchange  and  dovetailing  of  old  and 
new  groups  in  the  past  half-century  is  remarkably  demon- 
strated. This  is  perhaps  due  in  great  part  to  the  formation  of 
the  Society  of  “Young  Contemporary  Engravers”  by  Pierre 
Guastalla  in  1929,  through  which  new  artists  of  talent  were 
given  an  opportunity  to  show  their  work  beside  that  of  the  es- 
tablished masters.  Among  the  younger  artists  of  this  group  are 
Robert  Cami,  Camille  Berg,  Michel  Ciry,  Gerard  Cochet,  Andre 
Jacquemin,  Robert  Lotiron,  and  Andre  Minaux,  whose  per- 
sonalities in  the  graphic  arts  were  not  fully  revealed  in  this 
country  until  quite  recently.  There  are  other  men  also,  new  to 
many  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  whose  work  does  not  suffer 
by  comparison  and  carries  the  same  high  standard  of  achieve- 
ment. Between  the  younger  men  and  those  of  the  older  school 
there  is  an  intermediate  group,  which  brings  these  two  genera- 
tions together  to  form  a sequence  of  unbroken  development. 
Prominent  among  them  are  Edouard  Goerg,  Jean-Eugene  Ber- 


216  the  b.  p.  l.  quarterly 

sier,  Roger  Vieillard,  Roland  Oudot,  and  others  of  equal  im- 
portance. 

There  are  so  many  bonds  between  nationality,  subject,  and 
artist  that  it  is  often  difficult  to  decide  what  one  owes  to  the  other, 
and  it  is  hard  to  ascertain  how  posterity  will  decide  the  issue. 
With  established  individuality  brought  about  by  a background 
of  inherent  creative  force,  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  these 
artists  other  than  as  being  wholly  attuned  to  the  cultural  atmos- 
phere of  France.  Their  presentation  and  manner  of  approach 
is  personal,  and  goes  hand-in-hand  with  the  best  traditions  of 
the  past  as  well  as  the  developments  of  our  age.  Their  work  as 
a whole  is  composed  of  an  emotional  approach  and  intellectual 
impulse,  combining  directness  and  feeling  totally  void  of  com- 
monplaceness and  monotony. 

Here  is  an  exhibition  in  which  every  artist  contributes  to 
the  success  of  the  show,  and  which  in  its  completeness  gives  a 
well-rounded  knowledge  of  wihat  is  being  done  in  France  by 
living  French  artists.  One  is  conscious  of  the  fact  that  the  artists 
have  striven  for  something  deeper  than  individual  expression,  and 
have  created  a sense  of  unity  among  themselves  far  beyond  the 
mere  desire  for  personal  recognition.  One  can  understand  and 
appreciate  these  prints  without  prejudice  or  limitation,  for  the 
results  are  free  from  circumscribed  formulas.  Any  attempt  at  a 
summary  of  this  French  exhibition  becomes  involved  from  the 
beginning,  for  every  print  is  important  and  deserves  the  honor 
of  special  mention. 

For  the  interesting  and  untiring  efforts  which  the  exhibition 
implies,  sincere  thanks  are  due  the  Comite  National  de  la  Gra- 
vure Francaise.  This  exhibition  is  an  example  of  one  of  the 
most  useful  and  expressive  instruments  of  exchange  in  cultural 
understanding. 


Notes  on  Rare  Books  and  Manuscripts 


Richardson  Discusses  his  Clarissa  and  Grandison 

ONE  of  the  most  interesting  items  in  a distinguished  group  of 
manuscripts  recently  given  to  the  Boston  Public  Library, 
and  described  in  the  January  1952  issue  of  this  magazine,  is  a long 
letter  by  Samuel  Richardson  discussing  his  Clarissa  and  the  re- 
cently published  Sir  Charles  Grandison.  Addressed  to  Lady  Eliza- 
beth Echlin,  the  wife  of  an  Irish  peer,  and  dated  May  17,  1754,  it 
has  apparently  never  been  published.  (However,  it  is  difficult  to 
ascertain  such  a fact ; any  information  to  the  contrary  will  there- 
fore be  welcome.) 

As  a boy  of  thirteen,  he  once  wrote  of  himself,  Richardson  was 
bashful  and  “not  fond  of  play” ; already  he  preferred  the  company 
of  “young  women  of  taste”  to  that  of  other  boys,  and  spent  his 
time  reading  aloud  to  their  sewing  circle  and  writing  love  letters 
for  them.  As  an  adult,  he  preferred  to  bask  in  the  admiration  of 
female  friends  rather  than  to  associate  with  his  famous  literary 
contemporaries,  such  as  Johnson,  Fielding,  and  Sterne.  It  was  for 
the  admiring  ladies,  and  often  with  their  advice,  that  he  wrote 
Pamela,  Clarissa,  and  Sir  Charles  Grandison  — long  novels  of  love 
in  epistolary  form. 

Lady  Echlin  was  the  sister  of  Richardson’s  favorite  corres- 
pondent, Lady  Dorothy  Bradshaigh  (“Lady  B.”  in  the  letter), 
who  dominated  his  life  and  work  after  1749.  Though  not  as  viva- 
cious and  strong-willed  as  Lady  Bradshaigh,  Lady  Echlin  was 
equally  fond  of  Richardson’s  books;  she  was  known,  for  her  piety 
and  charity,  as  “the  phenix  of  Dublin  ladies.”  It  was  perhaps  jeal- 
ousy rather  than  prudence  that  prompted  Lady  Bradshaigh  to 
caution  her  — as  mentioned  in  the  letter  — against  corresponding 
with  the  novelist.  At  any  rate,  the  warning  did  not  take  effect,  for 
the  relationship  continued  until  his  death. 

Richardson’s  friends  discussed  his  novels  heatedly  as  the  vol- 
umes appeared,  arguing  over  the  plots  and  often  seeming  to  assume 
that  the  characters  were  real.  They  followed  with  passionate  in- 
terest the  tragic  career  of  Clarissa,  abducted  and  seduced  by  the 
rake  Lovelace;  and  many  wished  that  he  could  have  been  saved. 
Lady  Echlin,  indeed,  was  so  disappointed  that  she  sent  Richardson 


218 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

a new  ending,  in  which  Lovelace,  reformed  by  a Dr.  Christian,  dies 
of  remorse  for  his  crimes. 

Clarissa  (the  Library  has  a set  of  the  first  edition,  published  in 
1747-48)  was  Richardson’s  greatest  success.  The  reception  of  his 
final  novel,  Sir  Charles  Grandison  — the  last  volume  of  which  ap- 
peared in  March  1754,  two  months  before  the  letter  now  in  the 
Library  was  written  — was  not  entirely  favorable.  The  critics 
praised  it,  but  they  thought  it  over-refined  and  far  too  long.  Rich- 
ardson himself,  as  the  letter  shows,  was  willing  to  admit  that  he 
had  almost  tired  the  world’s  patience  by  being  “so  voluminous  a 
scribbler” ; but  he  was  hurt  by  being  told  so  bluntly  by  the  outside 
world.  And  some  of  his  readers  did  not  think  the  book  too  long;  he 
was,  he  wrote,  “pestered  with  letters  and  applications  for  another 
volume  of  Grandison.” 

One  reason  for  the  lukewarm  reviews  of  Grandison  may  have 
been  that  it  was  planned  in  part  as  a reply  to  Fielding’s  Tom  Jones, 
which  Richardson  criticized  in  the  “Concluding  Note.”  Grandison 
was  intended  to  provide  a contrast  to  the  “profligate”  character 
and  life  of  Fielding’s  hero,  by  portraying  the  perfectly  virtuous 
gentleman ; the  original  title  of  the  novel  was  “The  Good  Man.” 
Richardson’s  hatred  of  his  great  contemporary,  though  certainly 
unbecoming,  was  not  altogether  unfounded,  considering  the  lat- 
ter’s two  parodies  of  Pamela  — Shamela  and  Joseph  Andrews.  Even 
now  that  Fielding  was  very  ill  (he  died  within  six  months),  Rich- 
ardson still  found  it  hard  to  pity  him,  as  the  letter  shows. 

“Mr.  Hildersley,”  of  whose  silence  Richardson  complains,  was 
Mark  Hildesley,  Bishop  of  Sodor  and  Mann,  who  had  written  an 
appreciative  letter  to  him  in  December  1753.  Hildesley,  who  de- 
scribed himself  as  “a  little  obscure  man,  a country  vicar,”  appar- 
ently heard  from  Lady  Echlin  — or  from  Lady  Lambard,  his  in- 
fluential patroness  — that  Richardson  was  offended,  for  on  July  n 
he  wrote  again,  regretting  that  his  modesty  “has  made  me  suffer 
in  your  opinion  of  my  decency  and  good  manners.”  Richardson  re- 
plied at  once,  and  they  began  a correspondence  and  friendship 
which  lasted  until  the  novelist’s  death  in  1761. 

The  letter  is  printed  here  in  full,  with  the  original  spelling  and 
punctuation. 

Alison  Bishop 


Most  cordially  do  I thank  my  good  Lady  Echlin,  for  her  kind 
Acceptance  of  my  Grandison.  Half-naughty  Lady  B.  pray  let  me 


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219 


beg  of  you  to  be  more  sparing  of  your  Cautions  where  they  are 
.not  needed  — Cautions  against  condescending  to  favour  a Man, 
who  has  a due  sense  of  the  Favour;  and  cannot  be  ungrateful  for 
it.  Have  I,  dear  Lady  B.  so  much  abused  those  you  have  conferred 
upon  me  (multiplied  as  they  have  been,  almost  monthly)  that  you 
should  caution  a Sister  against  me?  In  that  Light  I must  take  ye 
Caution  given  to  her. 

“Your  Ladiship  has  often  lamented  that  I did  not  reform  Love- 
lace.” Not  after  his  last  Outrage  on  the  Honour  of  Clarissa,  I dare 
say.  All  that  could  have  been  obtained,  as  to  Instruction  by  ye 
Reformation  of  a Rake,  is  obtained  by  that  of  the  once  Libertine 
Belford,  who  had  not  sinned  up  to  the  other’s  size  of  Enormity. 
Your  dear  Sister  too,  would  have  been  glad,  once,  that  Lovelace 
(reformed)  had  been  the  Husband  of  Clarissa.  What  an  Example ! 
so  to  reward  a Rake  so  atrocious!  How  had  the  moral  of  my  Work, 
in  that  Case,  been  destroyed ! 

“Your  Ladyship  is  informed,  that  I have  not  finished  my  Story 
of  Grandison.”  Your  informants,  Madam,  have  wanted  Attention, 
if  they  have  read  the  Volumes.  Yet  this  has  been  said  and  written 
to  me,  by  many  Persons,  some  anonymously.  By  so  many,  that  I 
thought  proper  to  print  the  Answer  I made  to  one  Lady,  in  order 
to  send  it,  or  give  it,  to  as  many  as  should  make  the  Objection,  or 
hear  it  made. 

I have  had  near  as  many  letters  sent  me,  on  the  Subject  of  Sir 
Charles’s  offered  Compromise  with  the  Porretta  Family,  of  suffer- 
ing his  Daughters,  had  his  Marriage  with  their  Clementina  taken 
Effect,  to  be  brought  up  Roman  Catholics ; a Circumstance  which 
your  Ladiship  also,  with  a laudable  Zeal  for  the  purest  Religion 
on  Earth,  blames.  To  the  Letter  to  the  Lady  on  the  former  Occa- 
sion, I have  added  one  I wrote  to  a Gentleman  on  this  Subject. 
They  are  both  Enclosed.  I should  be  glad  they  may  give  Satisfac- 
tion to  your  Ladiship.  I think  to  send  a Number  of  them  to  Mr. 
Main,  to  give  to  those  who  have  bought  the  Book  of  him.  This 
Effect  they  will  have,  if  no  other,  To  shew  the  World,  that  I was 
willing  to  lay  aside  the  Pen,  before  I had  quite  tired  its  Patience ; 
having  been  so  voluminous  a Scribbler.  19  Volumes  in  Twelves, 
close  Printed  — In  Three  Stories  — Monstrous!  Who  that  sees 
them  ranged  on  one  Shelf,  will  forgive  me? 

“Will  I give  you  Leave  to  think,  that  Harriet  is  superior  to 
Clementina?”  Indeed  I will.  I have  owned  the  Superiority  to  dear 
Lady  B.  And  have  reflected  upon  the  Judgment  of  those  who  are 
struck  with  the  Glare  of  a great  Action,  which  was  owing  princi- 


220  THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

pally  to  a raised  Imagination.  Your  belovd  Sister  is  of  Opinion  with 
you,  Madam,  in  preferring  Harriet:  And  I will  not  choose  for  my 
Judges  of  the  Work,  any  of  those,  who  are  of  a contrary  one. 

I revere  Mr.  Hildersley:  But  have  a good  mind  to  complain  of 
him  to  your  dear  and  good  Lady  Lambard,  that  to  the  Answer  I 
wrote  to  a very  kind  Letter  he  favoured  me  with,  in  which  I re- 
quested the  Favour  of  his  Friendship  and  Correspondence,  he  has 
not,  and  it  is  a great  while  ago,  returned  me  one  Line  in  Reply. 
A Slight  from  a good  Man,  who  had  warmly  professed  himself 
(and  Spontaneously  too),  one’s  Friend,  must  be  a little  ( not  a 
little)  mortifying. 

Your  Ladiship  is  very  humble  when  you  descend  to  blame  your 
Self,  on  Comparison  with  your  over-gay  Neighbours  of  your  own 
Sex.  It  is  a bad  Age  we  live  in,  when  we  must  pronounce,  that  to 
be  singular  is  to  be  virtuous. 

If  any  thing  were  to  happen  to  F.  that  could  tame  the  wildest 
Vanity  that  I have  ever  known  in  a mean  Man,  I should  pity  him 
for  the  rest. 

I admire  your  Ladiship  for  what  you  say  of  Clementina,  and 
the  Count  of  Belvedere.  I have  half  a dozen  of  my  female  Corre- 
spondents, who  (sweet  Romancers,  as  they  are,  yet  know  it  not) 
cannot  bear  the  Thoughts  of  that  noble  Lady’s  resolving  to  reward 
the  Count  for  his  persevering  Love.  Till  now,  I thought  Constancy 
and  Fervour  in  a Lover  sufficient  to  make  any  Man,  not  unworthy 
from  want  of  Rank,  Fortune,  Morals,  a Merit  in  the  Heart  of  the 
noblest  Woman.  But  some  Ladies  had  rather  forgive  (and  this 
perhaps  to  the  Praise  of  their  Generosity!)  real  Faults  in  a Lover, 
than  reward  passive  Virtues.  It  is  not  often  given  to  Woman,  when 
addressed  by  more  than  one  Man,  to  choose  for  Happiness.  Some- 
thing glaring,  active,  bustling,  will  engage  her,  as  it  has  done 
those  sitting  in  Judgment  on  the  Characters  of  Clementina  and 
Harriet,  prefer  that  of  Clementina : Who,  however,  I think  of  as 
an  admirable  Woman;  and  as  a Sister  not  unworthy  of  the  gener- 
ous love  of  Harriet. 

I should  not  so  long  have  delayed  acknowleging  the  Favour  of 
your  Ladiship’s  Letter  before  me;  but  was  desirous  of  our  Elec- 
tions being  so  far  got  over,  as  to  be  able  to  have  mine  (the  rather 
because  of  the  inclosed)  pass  free  to  your  Hands.  We  are  as  par- 
tial to  ourselves  at  the  Post-Office,  as  elsewhere,  in  our  Nation’s 
Dealings  with  Yours.  A letter  from  a common  Clerk  will  have 
Honour  done  it,  going  to  Ireland.  But  Letters  from  thence  very 


RARE  BOOKS  AND  MANUSCRIPTS 


221 


often  are  charged,  tho’  freed  by  the  greatest  Hands.  But  never,  I 
beseech  your  Ladiship,  delay  your  Favours  to  me  one  Hour  on 
this  Consideration.  The  Difficulty  on  our  Side  is  nothing. 

Lady  B.  has  mentioned,  with  Love  and  Pleasure  to  me,  more 
than  once,  her  dear  Mrs.  Ashurst.  She  has  even  promised  me  the 
Honour  of  a personal  Acquaintance  with  her.  I dispatched  your 
Ladiship’s  inclosed  letter  to  her,  the  moment,  I received  it. 

I am,  Madam,  with  the  greatest  Respect, 


Your  Ladiship’s  most  faithful  and  obliged 
Humble  Servant 


London,  May  17,  1754. 


S.  Richardson 


The  Sources  of  Hawthorne’s  “The  Ambitious  Guest” 

PROFESSOR  NELSON  F.  ADKINS,  in  his  article  “The  Early 
Projected  Work  of  Nathaniel  Hawthorne,”  states  that  although 
contemporary  written  accounts  of  the  landslide  in  the  White  Moun- 
tains upon  which  Hawthorne  based  “The  Ambitious  Guest”  must 
have  been  common,  none  has  come  to  his  attention.1  Yet  a com- 
parison of  such  an  account  with  the  short  story  is  essential  for  a 
proper  understanding  and  appreciation  of  the  latter.  That  Haw- 
thorne knew  of  the  event  is  certain.  He  must  have  heard  of  the 
landslide  during  his  trips  to  the  White  Mountains  ;2  he  may  even 
have  learned  of  it  earlier  from  the  Salem  newspapers. 3 Above  all, 
he  was  probably  acquainted  with  the  facts  as  they  were  presented, 
with  substantial  accuracy,  in  Samuel  Griswold  Goodrich’s  A Sys- 
tem of  Universal  Geography  (1832).  This  is  how  the  account  in  that 
volume  reads : 

The  Notch  of  the  White  Mountains  will  long  be  remembered 
for  the  tragical  fate  of  a whole  family,  who  were  swept  away  by 
a slide,  or  avalanche  of  earth  from  the  side  of  the  mountain,  on 
the  night  of  the  28th  of  August,  1826.  This  family  by  the  name 

1.  Papers  of  the  Bibliographical  Society  of  America,  XXIX  (1945),  141-42. 

2.  Elizabeth  Chandler,  “A  Study  of  the  Sources  of  the  Tales  and  Ro- 
mances Written  by  Hawthorne  before  1853,”  Smith  College  Studies  in  Modern 
Languages,  VII,  No.  4 (July  1926),  4,  16. 

3.  See  Essex  Register,  September  7,  1826,  and  Salem  Literary  Observer, 
September  9,  1826. 


222 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

of  Willey,  occupied  what  was  called  the  Notch  House,  in  a very 
narrow  interval  between  the  bases  of  the  two  mountains.  No 
knowledge  of  any  incident  from  the  mountains  in  former  times 
existed  to  create  any  apprehension  of  danger  in  their  situation. 
Their  dwelling  stood  alone,  many  miles  from  the  residence  of 
any  human  being,  and  there  was  an  aspect  of  rural  neatness, 
simplicity  and  content  in  their  manner  of  life,  that  strongly  in- 
terested the  traveller  whom  chance  and  curiosity  led  into  their 
neighborhood.  For  two  seasons  previous,  the  mountains  had 
been  very  dry,  and  on  the  28th  of  June  there  was  a slide  not  far 
from  the  house,  which  so  far  alarmed  them,  that  they  erected  a 
temporary  encampment  a short  distance  from  their  dwelling,  as 
a place  of  refuge. 

On  the  morning  of  August  28th  it  began  raining  very  hard 
with  a strong  and  tempestuous  wind.  The  storm  continued 
through  the  day  and  night,  but  it  appears  the  family  retired  to 
rest  without  the  least  apprehension  of  any  disaster.  Among  them 
were  five  beautiful  children,  from  two  to  twelve  years  of  age.  At 
midnight  the  clouds  which  had  gathered  about  the  mountain, 
seemed  to  burst  instantaneously,  and  pour  their  contents  down 
in  one  tremendous  flood  of  rain  . . . The  avalanche  began  upon 
the  mountain  top  above  the  house,  and  moved  down  the  moun- 
tain in  a direct  line  toward  it,  in  a sweeping  torrent  which  seemed 
like  a river  pouring  from  the  clouds,  full  of  trees,  earth  and  rocks. 

On  reaching  the  house  it  divided  in  a singular  manner  within 
six  feet  of  it,  and  passed  on  either  side,  sweeping  away  the  stable 
and  horses,  and  completely  surrounding  the  dwelling  . . . The 
family,  it  appears,  sprang  from  their  beds,  and  fled  naked  into 
the  open  air,  where  they  were  instantly  carried  away  by  the  tor- 
rent and  overwhelmed  . . . 

In  the  morning,  a most  frightful  scene  of  desolation  was  ex- 
hibited . . . 

The  barn  was  crushed  . . . but  the  house  was  uninjured.  The 
beds  appeared  to  have  been  just  quitted  . . . The  bodies  of  seven  of 
the  family  were  dug  out  of  the  drift  wood  and  mountain  ruins, 
on  the  banks  of  the  Saco.4 

In  accordance  with  the  report,  Hawthorne  indicates  the  solitude 
of  the  family  in  his  story  and  describes  their  simple  contentment; 
and  it  was  probably  the  mention  of  a traveller  that  suggested  to 

4.  Cincinnati  1832,  27.  The  story  also  appeared,  in  substantially  the  same 
form,  in  other  “Peter  Parley”  books  edited  by  Goodrich  — The  Child’s  Book 
of  American  Geography , Boston  1831,  15;  The  First  Book  of  History  for  Children 
and  Youth,  Cincinnati  1831,  14;  and  Peter  Parley’s  Book  of  Curiosities,  New 
York  1831,  141-42. 


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223 


him  the  guest.  The  “temporary  encampment”  of  the  account  be- 
comes the  “barrier”  which  had  been  reared  for  an  emergency.  He 
speaks  of  the  wind  that  “came  through  the  Notch,”  of  the  slide 
which  “broke  into  two  branches,”  and  finally  of  the  valley  of  the 
Saco. 

However,  Hawthorne  made  many  changes  in  the  account  to 
suit  the  artistic  mold  of  his  story  — the  folly  of  excessive  am- 
bition and  desire  for  earthly  immortality.  For  example,  he  does 
not  have  the  family  sleeping  when  the  slide  occurs,  for  he  needs 
them  awake  to  greet  the  guest  and  to  serve  as  an  audience.  In  his 
version  the  bodies  of  the  victims  are  not  discovered,  because  he 
wishes  the  guest  to  remain  unknown,  his  ambitions  for  fame  and 
immortality  a grim  irony  lost  in  the  debris. 

But  it  is  in  the  account  of  the  people  killed  that  the  most  inter- 
esting changes  occur.  Hawthorne  introduces  a daughter  of  seven- 
teen, “the  image  of  young  Happiness,”  to  whom  the  guest  is  im- 
mediately attracted,  and  also  an  aged  grandmother,  “the  image  of 
Happiness  grown  old.”  With  these  additions  the  family  represents 
every  important  age  of  man ; becoming  a symbol  of  mankind  itself. 

The  ambitious  guest,  of  course,  is  entirely  Hawthorne’s  own 
creation.  Around  him  the  author  weaves  the  theme  of  his  story. 
The  structure  is  a series  of  modest  wishes  on  the  part  of  humble 
people,  which  contrast  with  the  lofty  aspirations  of  the  guest.  He 
tells  his  hosts,  “.  . . I cannot  die  till  I have  achieved  my  destiny. 
Then,  let  Death  come!  I shall  have  built  my  monument!”  The 
young  girl  desires  nothing  more  than  the  comfort  of  home  life.  The 
father  wants  a farm  somewhere  among  the  White  Mountains  that 
would  afford  security  from  slides.  “I  should  want,”  he  says,  “to 
stand  well  with  my  neighbors  and  be  called  Squire,  and  sent  to 
General  Court  for  a term  or  two  . . .”  When  he  dies,  he  hopes  for 
a simple  slate  gravestone  with  something  on  it  to  let  people  know 
that  he  lived  “an  honest  man  and  died  a Christian.”  One  of  the 
children,  who  are  “outvying  each  other  in  wild  wishes,  and  childish 
projects  of  what  they  would  do  when  they  came  to  be  men  and 
women,”  clamors  that  all  of  them  should  go  to  take  a drink  out  of 
the  basin  of  the  Flume.  Only  the  grandmother  has  a weird  desire. 
Troubled  by  the  old  superstition  that  if  anything  in  the  attire  of  a 
corpse  were  amiss  it  would  attempt  to  mend  the  error,  she  requests 
one  of  the  children  to  hold  a looking-glass  over  her  face  when  she 
lies  in  her  coffin,  so  that  she  can  see  if  everything  is  arranged  cor- 
rectly. 


224 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

The  guest  seizes  upon  each  wish  as  a point  of  departure  to  ex- 
press his  own  desire  for  an  immortal  monument  on  earth.  The 
final  irony  is  the  manner  of  their  death : if  they  had  remained  in- 
side, they  would  have  been  spared,  for  the  slide  divided  immediate- 
ly above  the  house  and  left  it  untouched.  The  stranger  now  has 
his  nameless  sepulchre.  The  grandmother’s  vanity  remains  un- 
satisfied; the  father  will  have  neither  his  farm  nor  his  simple 
gravestone;  the  young  girl  will  have  no  husband  or  comfortable 
fireside;  the  child  will  never  again  drink  from  the  Flume.  Using  all 
the  other  ambitions  merely  to  emphasize  the  zealous  aspiration  of 
the  stranger,  Hawthorne  is  ready  to  sum  up  his  moral : 

Woe  for  the  high-souled  youth,  with  his  dream  of  Earthly  Im- 
mortality ! His  name  and  person  utterly  unknown ; his  history, 
his  way  of  life,  his  plans,  a mystery  never  to  be  solved,  his  death 
and  his  existence  equally  a doubt ! Whose  was  the  agony  of  that 
death  moment? 

Much  could  be  said  about  the  artistic  techniques  Hawthorne 
uses : line  movement,5  contrast,  prefiguration,  and  so  forth.  All 
these  devices  add  skillful  strokes  of  art.  The  mere  reporting  of  a 
freak  accident  has  been  raised  by  Hawthorne  to  an  artistic  expres- 
sion of  an  enduring  truth. 

B.  Bernard  Cohen 


A Margaret  Fuller  Satire  on  Longfellow 

ON  August  23,  1845,  there  appeared  in  the  Broadway  Journal,  of 
which  Edgar  Allan  Poe  was  editor,  an  amusing  satire  on  the 
sentiments  concerning  woman’s  place  in  society  expressed  by  Vic- 
torian, the  hero  of  Longfellow’s  The  Spanish  Student.  The  author 
of  this  piece,  entitled  “The  Whole  Duty  of  Woman,”  was  in  all 
probability  Margaret  Fuller,  then  in  New  York  City  writing  for 
Horace  Greeley’s  Tribune.  The  satire  affords  a glimpse  of  Miss 
Fuller  in  a less  serious  mood  than  was  usual  with  her. 

Several  facts  point  to  Miss  Fuller’s  authorship  of  “The  Whole 
Duty  of  Woman.”  In  February,  1845,  had  appeared  her  plea  for 
greater  freedom  for  women,  Woman  in  the  Nineteenth  Century.  Her 
lack  of  admiration  for  the  writings  of  Longfellow  she  was  to  make 


5.  See  Leland  Schubert,  Hawthorne  the  Artist,  Chapel  Hill  1944,  47-9. 


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225 


evident  in  the  same  year  in  her  review  of  his  Poems.1  The  satire  in 
the  Broadway  Journal  is  signed  with  an  asterisk,  the  signature  she 
frequently  used  to  mark  her  contributions  to  the  Tribune.2  Poe 
twice  named  Miss  Fuller  as  a contributor  to  the  Journal ,3  though 
nothing  in  the  paper  appeared  under  her  name.  The  handwriting  of 
the  following  letter,  which  accompanied  the  satire  to  the  Journal 
office,  is  said  to  resemble  that  of  Miss  Fuller.* 

To  the  Editors  of  The  Broadway  Journal. 

I was  much  obliged  to  you  for  your  ready  acceptance  of  my 
article  entitled  “A  Peep  behind  the  Curtain”  and  I was  very 
much  gratified  that  you  were  not  alone  in  your  estimate  of  it, 
as  it  was  copied  very  extensively  into  the  public  papers.  I hope 
I shall  always  be  equally  fortunate. 

The  object  of  the  present  communication  speaks  for  itself.  It 
is  to  ridicule  a style  of  writing  very  common  in  your  sex,  when 
discoursing  of  ours,  but  which  deserves  no  better  epithet  than 
inefjable  silliness.  I am  aware  Longfellow  is  a popular  poet  & de- 
servedly so,  but  I am  sure  he  will  not  be  offended  at  such  a mere 
piece  of  pleasantry,  coming  as  it  does  from  one  of  the  party  to 
whom  such  soft  nonsense  is  addressed.  I also  wished  to  make 
some  slight  acknowledgment  to  the  writer  in  the  Whig  review 
for  the  very  flattering  view  he  takes  of  the  weaker  sex. 

X. 

“A  Peep  behind  the  Curtain,”  a satirical  portrait  of  a man  selfishly 
in  love,  had  appeared  in  the  Journal  for  May  24,  1845,  and  was 
signed  S****,  probably  a disguise  for  “Sarah,”  Miss  Fuller’s  first 
name. 

The  speech  of  Victorian  which  Miss  Fuller  satirizes  (and,  inci- 
dentally, misquotes)  is  found  in  The  Spanish  Student , Act  I,  Scene 
iii.  Preciosa  fears  that,  since  Victorian  is  a scholar,  the  distance  be- 
tween them  is  too  great.  Victorian  replies  that  he  wishes  woman’s 
affection,  not  her  intellect;  that  the  “world  of  the  affections,”  and 

1.  Tribune , December  10,  1845. 

2.  See  her  letter  to  Eugene  Fuller  (February,  1845?),  in  Mason  Wade, 
The  Writings  of  Margaret  Fuller,  (New  York,  1941),  p.  575:  “If  you  see  the 
Weekly  Tribune  you  will  find  all  my  pieces  marked  with  a star.” 

3.  Broadivay  Journal,  II,  184  (September  27,  1845),  and  II,  200  (October 
4,  1845). 

4.  “The  Correspondence  of  R.  W.  Griswold,”  Boston  Public  Library 
Quarterly,  III,  154  (April,  1951).  The  letter  is  in  the  Griswold  Collection  of 
the  Library.  It  has  been  published  in  part  in  Mary  E.  Phillips,  Edgar  Allan 
Poe  — The  Man  (Chicago,  1926),  II,  1166-1167.  Miss  Phillips  identifies  the 
writer  as  Miss  Fuller  but  offers  no  evidence. 


226 


THE  B.  P.  L.  QUARTERLY 

not  that  of  man’s  ambition,  is  woman’s  world ; and  that,  sitting 
“by  the  fireside  of  the  heart,”  woman  feeds  its  flame ; and  so  on.s 
The  article  in  the  “Whig  review”  to  which  Miss  Fuller  refers 
in  her  letter  and  in  a prefatory  note  to  her  satire  is  “American  Let- 
ters — Their  Character  and  Advancement”  by  “II  Secretario”  (Ed- 
ward W.  Johnston),  published  in  the  June,  1845,  issue  of  the 
American  Review ,6  The  writer’s  opinion  of  woman’s  social  function 
is  similar  to  that  expressed  by  Victorian : 

Nature  — happily  careful  of  her  fairest  work  — has  fenced  her 
within  the  crystal  sphere  of  domestic  life,  from  the  stir,  the  thrill, 
the  athletic  contest  of  the  outer  world.  Bright  creature  as  she  is, 
of  the  affections  only,  the  gracious  inhabitant  of  a fairy  land  of 
the  heart  . . . what  has  she  to  do  with  heroism?  Is  it  not  enough 
that  she  prompts  it  in  men?  She  has  beauty:  must  she  have 
strength,  too? 

His  view  of  education  for  woman  must  have  irked  Miss  Fuller.  He 
foresaw  a period  when  woman  would  become 

...  a sort  of  feminine  man  ...  a little  hard-featured,  of  rectangu- 
lar limbs,  bearing  before  her  the  worse  than  Gorgonian  terrors 
of  a diploma  of  some  she-university,  and  enriching  her  natural 
gifts  of  ugliness  with  disputatious  tongue,  the  attire  of  a slat- 
tern, and  the  propensities  of  a pedant. 

When  Poe  printed  the  satire  in  the  Broadway  Journal  (August  23, 
1845;  II,  101),  he  added  a footnote: 

We  give  place  to  this  jeu  d} esprit,  merely  through  our  sincere 
respect,  as  well  for  the  honesty  of  intention,  as  for  the  ability, 
of  its  author.  We  feel  it  our  duty,  nevertheless,  to  protest  against 
the  doctrine  advanced.  The  opinions  of  our  fair  correspondent 
are  by  no  means  our  own.  — ED.  B.  J. 

“The  Whole  Duty  of  Woman”  consists  of  a brief  preface  and  an 
unrhymed  “poem”  of  slightly  more  than  a hundred  lines.  In  both 
Miss  Fuller’s  ostensible  speaker  is  a man  who  agrees  with  the 
opinions  set  forth  by  Longfellow  and  Johnston  but  who,  inadver- 
tently, causes  those  views  to  appear  absurd.  In  the  prefatory  note 
he  states  that  “the  accompanying  effusion  was  written  to  make  the 
true  meaning  of  the  poet  more  apparent”  to  the  “limited  capacity” 
of  women  readers.  He  admits  that  women  are  “undoubtedly  a 

5.  Graham’s  Magazine,  XXI,  hi  (September,  1842). 

6.  I am  indebted  to  Professor  Jay  B.  Hubbell  for  the  information  that 
Johnston  used  the  pseudonym  “II  Secretario.” 


RARE  BOOKS  AND  MANUSCRIPTS 


227 


legitimate  part  of  the  human  family,  and  until  something  can  be 
invented  that  will  supply  their  place,  are  to  be  tolerated,  and  even 
well  treated  . . Of  the  meter  of  the  poem  he  observes  that,  if  it 
is  not  as  correct  as  it  should  be,  “we  presume  it  is  at  least  as  good 
as  that  of  some  of  our  philosopher-poets  — and  indeed  very  much  in 
their  manner.”  In  the  poetical  portion  he  quotes  Victorian’s  speech 
bit  by  bit,  offering  specific  application  of  its  views.  A few  excerpts 
will  illustrate  the  author’s  method  and  tone: 

‘The  world  of  affection  is  thy  home, 

Not  that  of  man’s  ambition.’  True,  most  true! 

You  cannot  go  to  Congress,  nor  can  serve 
In  the  militia,  nor  be  heard 
Within  the  halls  of  justice.  ’Tis  your  part 
To  mend  his  hose  — delightful  task! 

And  patch  his  ancient  vestments.  ‘In  that  stillness 
Calm  and  holy,  which  most  becomes  a woman, 

Thou  sittest  by  the  fireside  of  the  heart 
Feeding  its  flame.’  Canst  take  a hint? 

Well,  I’ll  explain  to  you  — it  simply  means 
Pray  keep  the  fire  a-going,  but  don’t  intrude 
Your  vapid  observations! 


The  feeling  most  becoming  in  a woman 
Is  ‘just  as  my  husband  wishes’  — 

And  as  affection  is  the  thing  we  crave, 

Be  liberal  in  the  outward  demonstration. 

Think  not  of  self,  nor  call  your  soul  your  own ; 
But  when  the  loved  one  steps  within  his  bower 
Be  sure  to  meet  him  with  a raptured  smile, 

E’en  if  he’s  cross  and  snappish. 

If  ’tis  winter’s  cold,  prostrate  yourself 
And  take  his  rubbers  — or  in  summer’s  heat 
Fan  his  moist  countenance.  ’Tis  these  tender  acts 
That  make  life  blissful,  and  he  expects  them. 


‘The  element  of  fire  is  pure,  it  cannot  change  its  nature 
But  burns  as  brightly  within  the  gypsey  camp 
As  in  the  palace  hall.’  Be  sure  it  does; 

And  Jock  the  ploughman  feels 

As  genuine  a flame  toward  Sal  the  housemaid, 

As  that  which  glows  within  the  poet’s  heart, 

Or,  in  briefer  phrase,  one  kind  of  love 
Is  just  as  good  as  t’other. 

James  B.  Reece 


Trustees  of  the  Library 

Lee  M.  Friedman,  President 
Robert  H.  Lord,  Vice-President 
Frank  W.  Buxton  Frank  J.  Donahue 

Patrick  F.  McDonald 

Director,  and  Librarian 

Milton  Edward  Lord 


Contributors  to  this  Issue 

Lewis  P.  Simpson  is  Assistant  Professor  of  English  at  Louisiana 
State  University. 

B.  Bernard  Cohen  is  an  Instructor  in  English  at  Wayne  University. 

James  B.  Reece  is  working  for  his  Ph.D.  in  American  Literature 
at  Duke  University. 

Arthur  W.  Heintzelman,  etcher  and  painter,  is  Keeper  of  Prints 
at  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

Margaret  Munsterberg  and  Alison  Bishop  are  members  of  the 
staff  of  the  Rare  Book  Department  of  the  Library. 

Zoltan  Haraszti  is  Keeper  of  Rare  Books  and  Editor  of  Publica- 
tions at  the  Boston  Public  Library.  He  is  the  author  of  John 
Adams  and  the  Prophets  of  Progress,  recently  published  by  the 
Harvard  University  Press. 


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